Christian Nationalist Mike Johnson Does Not Prefer Being Called Christian Nationalist Mike Johnson
And other highlights from Johnson's latest Dear Leader ass-kissing interview on the Sunday shows.
Last week, Donald Trump went to China, and being the uncouth and vulgar wannabe he is, he vacillated between embarrassing himself accidentally or purposely in front of Chinese President Xi Jinping. But this didn’t stop Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump’s most loyal ass-kisser, from fawning all over Dear Leader’s performance abroad.
Here is his 12 minutes of praise on Fox News Sunday with host Shannon Bream.
Staged outside in front of the National Mall with hand mics, Johnson and Bream gave off the vibe of a public access channel in Peoria, trying to mimic the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
But after 60 seconds of telling the Fox News viewers how “impressed” Xi must be with Trump, Bream had to make it awkward by bringing up what Trump critics have to say about actual reality:
BREAM: What do you make of those critics who say though, listen, the US is in a tougher economic position, that China has an upper hand, that they feel strong?They [China] felt strong coming into this conversation and because of some of the tough economic issues and other things that we’re having here that the president wasn’t at the highest level of leverage he could have been.
JOHNSON: Well, I don’t know. I think that was a central part of the conversation because much of this economic trouble that we have right now of course is related directly to the Strait of Hormuz. […] They have a direct interest in commerce being open in the Strait of Hormuz as much as we do. In fact, every country around the world. So, we’ve got to get that sorted out.
Golly, why do we need that sorted? Was there a cause for this conundrum? Something like an undeclared war called “Operation Epic Fury,” apparently named by the exact kind of loser who would pick a name like that?
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Bream asked Johnson about members of Congress who want Johnson to stop giving away their constitutional authority to declare war. Johnson pretended that the Trump regime changing the name of its military operation means it gets a reset on the 60-day clock for military action without congressional approval.
JOHNSON: Okay, this is not time for “Wars Powers Act.” “Operation Epic Fury” has been declared concluded […] and now we’re into a new project and that is to get the Strait of Hormuz open. This is about diplomacy and negotiation. You don’t have kinetic warfare right now. You don’t have missiles flying around and so we’ve got to allow the administration time to finish this and sort it out.
You can’t just scratch the name off and call it something else while maintaining battleships and carriers in the vicinity, you fucking weirdo.
We quoted Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, on ABC’s This Week two weeks ago: “The language of the statutes […] does not provide for timeouts like in a football game.” As long as any military presence/operation is continuing, the Trump Administration is waging war illegally. And literally nobody thinks we have made it to “mission accomplished.”
Johnson brought up the Strait of Hormuz being closed again, as if it were caused by a natural disaster or an unknown entity, when Bream asked when Americans could expect some of the financial relief they were promised by the GOP during the 2024 election. (You know, before Trump made it obvious he doesn’t give a shit about “affordability” by calling it a hoax, which he continued to make even plainer this week.)
JOHNSON: Well, this relates to the last segment we were talking about the Strait of Hormuz. All points lead back to that. Gas prices are too high because of that. And then that that has an effect on how goods are transported to the grocery store and all the rest. So as soon as we get that straightened out, we will get back to the kitchen table issues, the economic issues that we put in place to make the economy grow.
Translation: “As soon as we unfuck the mess we created, we will get back to pretending we’ll fix the other issues we made worse.”
As for the headline, and related to the Christian nationalist Gilead hootenanny on the National Mall this weekend, Johnson made clear there’s a certain descriptor for unhinged zealots like himself that he doesn’t like, one that we just used. Bream quoted a statement by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, calling out yesterday’s “National Jubilee of Prayer” in DC as nothing more than a “Jubilee of Christian Nationalism.” Johnson took offense to that and came up with some new victimhood to bitch about.
JOHNSON: We are one nation under God. […] The people who are the naysayers and who have created this new term of “Christian Nationalism” as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and the voices of Christians. And I think that’s wildly inappropriate.
As historian Kevin M. Kruse pointed out in a short thread on Bluesky, the term “Christian Nationalism” is neither new nor was created by “naysayers” as a pejorative/derogatory term.
It’s an apt description of how Christians like Johnson have always been, as this December 21, 1945, newspaper clipping about far-right 20th century demagogue from the Memphis Press-Scimitar shared by historian Seth Cotlar on Bluesky shows:
Staff Writer Allan Smith wrote in his piece:
[Gerald Smith] wants to preserve “Christian Nationalism” without domination by the Jews or any other minority group. And he wants America First — with Mr. Smith leading the “crusade.”
As the saying goes, “hit dogs will holler.” And apparently, one of the loudest hollers is coming from the Speaker.
Have a week.
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Because we're talking about This Particular Louisiana wingnut, lemme give a huge big wet sloppy EQ shoutout to my fellow Louisianians for getting the fuck out to vote! All five of our proposed constitutional amendments went down in flames, and the Democratic senate candidate frontrunner got a fantastic showing in the primary (I won't say a word about the Republican primary because who the fuck cares, other than to say that Republican turnout was really low compared to the Democrats!).
Oh, and there is a massive recall petition drive to recall Gubner Jeffy and AG Liz Murrill. MASSIVE. People really hate their guts down here. It's so refreshing!
Mikey obviously never heard of radio star Catholic priest Father Coughlin and his considerable Christian Nationalist movement in the 1930's.