Speaker Mike Johnson has been busted making bogus claims that has stayed out of President Donald Trump’s effort to lock in control of the House by redrawing red states’ political maps.
The speaker—who has developed a reputation for regularly appearing to feign ignorance about what the president is up to—has claimed for months that he’s not directly involved in Trump’s push to draw new, gerrymandered congressional districts mid-cycle.
But now a Republican, Indiana state Senate president pro tempore Rodric Bray, has revealed how Johnson intervened to push him to redraw his state’s political maps to favor Republicans.
The plan which had been pushed by Trump was for Indiana Republicans to redraw every one of its nine congressional districts to help the party pick up two seats next year, Politico reported.
Bray has refused to go along with the plan, making it now almost certain that Indiana will not give Trump extra seats, while the redistricting which started it all, in Texas, is also in doubt.
A panel of federal judges—including two Trump appointees—struck down the Texas state legislature’s new, Republican-friendly maps earlier this week.
Hours later, Bray told Politico, Johnson called him.
Asked what they spoke about it, Bray said they “just talked about the importance of the House majority.” He called the conversation “fantastic” and “productive,” according to Politico, though he declined to say if Johnson empathized with Bray’s position.
Johnson did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
Bray has weathered online attacks from the president this week over Indiana’s refusal to draw new political maps.
Trump shared multiple posts to Truth Social blaming Bray personally for the impasse and calling him a “RINO,” or Republican in Name Only.
“A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesn’t care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem,” Trump wrote. “Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity.”
So far, Indiana is the only Republican-led state that has refused to join a national redistricting war that Trump started in July, when he called for “just a simple redrawing” of Texas’ already heavily gerrymandered political maps to help the GOP gain five more House seats in 2026.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called a special session in October to redraw the state maps like Trump asked, and Vice President JD Vance has flown repeatedly to Indiana, which Trump won by 36 points in 2024, to lobby Republican lawmakers.
Bray, however, announced on Nov. 14 that the plan lacked the necessary votes after eight Republicans state senators broke ranks with the president on the issue.
In a statement, Bray said he and his caucus wanted to see a Republican-led House in 2026, but that he and other members did not think a mid-cycle redistrict was the best way to achieve that goal.
“We would rather support efforts to elect a Republican in the existing 1st Congressional District, which has been trending Republican for the last several years and would give President Trump another Republican in Congress,” the statement said.
Bray said he had spoken to Trump to express his support and explain why he thought pursuing Congressional District 1 was the best strategy.
The post Johnson Busted Lying About Helping Blatant Trump Power Grab appeared first on The Daily Beast.
