Shortly after Mike Johnson appeared to be two votes short of retaining the House Speakership on Friday, Marjorie Taylor Greene — Trump's staunch ally and avid Republican congresswoman from Georgia — stood in the middle of the House floor. talking intently on her cell phone.
Despite covering the device with her hand, sharp Reuters photographer Evelyn Hochstein caught the name of the person on the other end of the call – incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
It was a tangible sign of the overwhelming interest President-elect Donald Trump is showing in this vote. Trump enthusiastically endorsed Johnson to be speaker of the upcoming session of Congress earlier this week, and a first-round defeat would have been an upset.
Behind the scenes, however, the wheels were turning furiously — creating a chaotic interlude in the House after Johnson initially appeared headed for at least temporary defeat.
At one point, Johnson walked out of the room, followed by two of the men who opposed him, Ralph Norman of North Carolina and Keith Self of Texas. Meanwhile, other members of the House and their families were walking and talking, waiting to see what would happen next.
When Johnson eventually returned, he was all smiles.
Trump himself made a direct appeal to Norman and Self to back Johnson via speakerphone, Republican sources told news outlets including Politico.
With the voting not officially declared closed, Norman and Self were able to shift their votes to the Louisianan, putting him just short of the 218 mark needed to hold the speaker's gavel. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massey was the only Republican to abstain.
Both Norman and Self told reporters after the vote that they had spoken with Trump during the day.
Norman said he spoke with Trump twice on Friday. The first during a several-minute phone call when Republican Nancy Mays handed him her phone and the president-elect was on the other line.
The second time was a longer, 15-minute conversation involving Norman, Johnson and Self, he said, without confirming the exact time.
“Trump was absolutely right when he told me that Mike was the only one who had the likability factor,” Norman said.
He went on to describe Trump as “enthusiastic” about the Republican trifecta in Washington — control of the House, Senate and the presidency.
“I said, 'Mr. President, I agree with you, I just hope Mike was able to do this,'” Norman said.
Self also said he spoke with Trump several times on Friday.
“We had a discussion about the whole process,” he said of his conversation with the president-elect.
In the end, the embarrassment was averted — even if Trump publicly seemed more focused on other things.
In the midst of the vote, as the names of House members were called alphabetically, the president-elect lamented on social media the possibility of American flags being flown at half-mast during his inauguration on Jan. 20 — part of the traditional mourning after a death of former President Jimmy Carter.
Friday afternoon's debate showed just how thin the Republican majority in the House of Representatives will be in the coming months.
In addition to the three initial Republican votes against Johnson, five other hardline conservatives — who have opposed compromises Johnson has made with Democrats in the past — delayed voting during the initial roll call vote. Although they eventually relented, it was a very obvious shot across the speaker's bow.
After the final vote, the House Freedom Caucus — some of which were among the temporary abstentions — released a statement explaining that they ended up endorsing Johnson because of their support for Trump.
“We have done so despite our sincere reservations about the speaker's record over the past 15 months,” they wrote.
So far, the party has a 219 to 215 lead over Democrats — but that could shrink by two if Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Michael Walz of Florida take the administration jobs Trump has offered them. It will be months before a special election determines their replacements.
That means Trump will need to hold his entire Republican membership in the House of Representatives together if he wants to pass key parts of his legislative agenda early in his presidency, including hardline immigration reforms, new tariffs and tax and spending cuts.
As Friday showed, that can be a tall order.
Additional reporting by Rachel Luker