The House GOP's Speaker Test

Please consider The House GOP's Speaker Test by the WSJ editorial board.

Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Mike Johnson for another term as Speaker when the House votes to convene the 119th Congress on Friday, and that's the smart move. The vote will test whether House Republicans are serious about governing or whether they'll descend again into political masochism.

"Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement," Mr. Trump posted on his social-media site on Monday.

Mr. Johnson has earned re-election given his handling of the narrow GOP House majority and the impossible circumstances he inherited. A group of malcontents deposed Kevin McCarthy out of personal spite, and what did that accomplish? Nothing of substance we can see. Mr. Johnson was an almost accidental replacement after more prominent Members failed to get a majority.

But the man from Louisiana has quietly risen to the occasion. He listens to all factions in the riven GOP caucus. He's as conservative as anyone in the House, but he's also a student of the Constitution and a realist about the difficulty of legislating in the American system. You can't always get what you want, but you try to get what you need—that is, the 218 votes to pass something.

The trouble is a rump, blow-it-all-up GOP faction that wants to make statements more than law. They're threatening to take down Mr. Johnson, though they don't have an alternative. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has declared that he'll oppose Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Massie opposes just about everything. This means the Speaker has to keep everyone else on side if all Members are voting on Friday.