Speaker Johnson says Trump is ‘trolling’ Democrats but takes no pleasure in shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson said President Trump is “trolling” congressional Democrats for shutting down the government but doesn’t like the pain the shutdown is inflicting.

Mr. Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought have used the shutdown to cancel and freeze funding for projects in Democratic areas and discussed laying off federal workers. 

Mr. Johnson said the goal is to make the government “more efficient and effective,” and the Trump administration is taking advantage of the opportunity to slash funding during the shutdown that Democrats in Congress would never approve. 

“Are they taking great pleasure in that? No,” he said. “Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. … That’s what President Trump does.”

Asked how both of those things can be true, Mr. Johnson elaborated. 

“The effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas,” he said.  

“But what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position,” the speaker said. “And they’re using memes and all the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining, but at the end of the day, the decisions are hard ones, and I’m telling you, they’ve not taken any pleasure in that.”

The memes Mr. Johnson was referring to include videos and photos that Mr. Trump has posted on social media putting a fake sombrero and handlebar mustache over House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to make him look Hispanic. Democrats have said the memes are racist and juvenile. 

Vice President J.D. Vance and other Republicans call the memes simply funny and say the Democrats should lighten up.

Mr. Johnson was not asked about the memes or social media taunts. He was asked about the White House using its executive authority to target funding for Democratic priorities. 

He brushed that off as the consequence of Republicans being in power while Democrats refuse to fund the government. 

“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,” the speaker said. “So whoever is sitting at the White House gets to then apply their lenses of review. We happen to have a Republican, a conservative administration. We’re very grateful for that. We’re limited government conservatives. We think the government’s too big.”

Mr. Johnson also claimed that Mr. Vought “doesn’t want people to lose jobs,” even as he plans reductions in force.

Many nonessential federal workers are furloughed during the shutdown and would typically be allowed to return to work when everything opens up, with the law requiring them to be paid back. The Trump administration’s layoff strategy could be designed to save that money but is not required, and Democrats say they will challenge any mass firings in court.