President Donald Trump on Monday left House Speaker Mike Johnson and others visibly shocked by revealing non-public medical details about a House Republican while television cameras broadcast the scene.
Trump was talking throughout an impromptu press conference — the place he was anticipated to discipline a couple of questions concerning the ongoing Iran War — earlier than a scheduled lunch with Kennedy Center board members, when he started praising the way in which House Speaker Mike Johnson has managed to maintain his majority collectively regardless of having solely a two-vote margin since earlier this 12 months.
Seated between Johnson and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, whom Trump had earlier revealed is battling early-stage breast cancer, he requested the Speaker about one GOP member who was “very ill.” Johnson replied that Florida Representative Neal Dunn had been affected by “real health challenges” and a “pretty grim diagnosis” whereas nonetheless displaying as much as work and voting, calling him “a real champion and a patriot.”
Trump then interjected to ask about Dunn’s analysis earlier than revealing, unprompted, that it had been “a terminal diagnosis.”
“He would be dead by June,” mentioned Trump, prompting Johnson to leap again in, greater than a bit stunned.
”Ok, that wasn’t public,” Johnson mentioned.
Johnson added that Trump had related with Dunn to supply condolences and later organized for him to obtain medical remedy from White House Medical Unit docs and different navy physicians at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
“The man has a new lease on life. He acts like he’s 30 years younger, and he walked into the conference meeting, and we thought we’d seen a ghost, and I spoke with him over the weekend, and he’s encouraged and thankful, and he thanks the President for his leadership and intervention,” Johnson mentioned.
Trump re-entered the dialog by recounting how Johnson had informed him that Dunn had been “terminal” with a “really bad heart” and remarked how there was “nothing they could do” for the longtime Florida consultant.
“I realized I have doctors in the White House … the White House, doctors are incredible and they’ve helped me with other people. They’re helping me with people right now, people that are very sick… like they’re miracle workers. And I said, I have to call them. And I called the two doctors, they’re both great. And they immediately went over to see the congressman, and he was on the operating table, like two hours later,” Trump mentioned.
Earlier this 12 months, Dunn mentioned he wouldn’t search re-election in Florida’s 2nd district. Last month, amid rumors that Dunn would possibly resign early, his workplace informed Politico that he would serve out the duration of his term.
Since January, House Republicans had been working with simply 218 seats, a digital two-seat majority, after the dying of Rep. Doug Lamalfa of California died and the resignation of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Because Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) ceaselessly votes in opposition to House Republican management, Johnson has usually struggled to maintain his conference collectively to cross party-line laws or procedural guidelines wanted to debate and cross payments with out resorting to a fast-track process that requires two-thirds of the House to assist a invoice.
His margin successfully narrowed earlier this month when California Rep. Kevin Kiley introduced he was registering as an Independent, although Kiley mentioned he would nonetheless caucus with the GOP and assist Johnson’s management.
