Nia-Malika Henderson, Columnist

Mike Johnson’s Power Is Shrinking By the Day

February 15, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

The smallest speaker who ever lived?
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a fancy title but a crummy job. And that job will likely get worse in the coming weeks, if the past few days are any indication.

Right now, Johnson is locked in another (partial) government shutdown, the second in just a few months. He is also dealing with a spate of retirements that could imperil his already slim majority. Moreover, a handful of members have found their spines, bucking President Donald Trump on tariffs, his signature Swiss-Army-knife economic policy. This all comes as Trump is deeply unpopular and Democrats are emboldened, expanding their list of targeted House seats to 44. (They need to flip just three seats to win a majority.)