Speaker Johnson Says Trump Is ‘Trolling’ Democrats With Cuts

new video loaded: Speaker Johnson Says Trump Is ‘Trolling’ Democrats With CutstranscriptBacktranscriptSpeaker Johnson Says Trump Is ‘Trolling’ Democrats With CutsSpeaker Mike Johnson said the shutdown shifted authority to the president to determine what parts of the government are essential and also downplayed the president’s previous statements about using that authority to hurt his political opponents.Whoever is the president, whoever is sitting in the White House, and their staffs at the Office of Management and Budget, are given an unenviable task. It’s a regretful situation. They have to then determine, since the spigots have been effectively turned off and there’s no more money coming in, they have to then prioritize triage, effectively, federal spending. They have to look at all of that and say which things are deemed essential and which are non-essential, which priorities, policies and personnel must be kept to keep the government operating and which are less of a priority. So they’re going to make those decisions. Now, are they taking great pleasure in that? No. Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes — I mean, yes, because that’s what President Trump does. And people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough ones.Speaker Mike Johnson said the shutdown shifted authority to the president to determine what parts of the government are essential and also downplayed the president’s previous statements about using that authority to hurt his political opponents.By Meg FellingOctober 3, 2025