Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson to meet at Mar-a-Lago. Johnson under MAGA pressure

House Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago this afternoon. The purpose of the meeting is a "major announcement on election integrity," reportedly to address what they will allege is the challenge posed by non-citizens voting in federal elections.

The meeting comes as Johnson is under pressure from the far right of the GOP House caucus, partly led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia congresswoman, who has surged as a MAGA star and was celebrated at the Mar-a-Lago Trumpettes gala in February, has threatened to call a vote to oust Johnson.

Asked about the friction on Wednesday, Johnson said Greene is a "colleague" and has "always considered her a friend" with whom he has not had disagreements over policy.

"We're both conservatives but we do disagree sometimes on strategy," he said.

Johnson acknowledged Greene's frustration with the latest spending bill but noted Republicans have a slight majority in the U.S. House, while the Democrats control the White House and U.S. Senate.

"So we're not going to get, because of that reality, we're not going to be able to do big transformational changes that we'd like, that we know are necessary," he said. "We will never get 100% of what we want, and believe is necessary for the country, because that's the reality. It's a matter of math in the Congress."

He also said a government shutdown "just wasn't an option" because it would put "a lot of pressure on the American people, the American economy" at a difficult time.

That is a similar position to the one taken by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose tenure in the post lasted all of nine months in 2023. The California Republican was removed from the top job by House Republicans, including Pensacola Congressman Matt Gaetz, in large part because McCarthy ushered through a measure to increase the nation's debt ceiling plus spending bills to avoid a partial government closure.

Despite McCarthy being credited with helping to restore Trump's standing in the GOP in 2021 after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the former president did not come to McCarthy's rescue last fall.

Johnson, Trump also have different views on FISA law reauthorization

Johnson also said he speaks with Trump "frequently" but declined comment on those conversations and whether he has sought the former president's support.

Johnson and Trump are seemingly at odds over Congress' reauthorization of the post-Sept. 11 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Authority Act, also called FISA. Right-wing House Republicans on Wednesday blocked the legislation. It's set to expire April 19, meaning time is running short for Congress to reauthorize the law. The sticking point lies in Section 702, which allows U.S. authorities to surveil communications of foreigners without a warrant.

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"KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!" Trump wrote on social media.

But on Wednesday, Johnson said the House will keep the law after revising it with key reforms.

"We're going to do a big reform on the intelligence program," he said. "We're enacting sweeping changes, over 50 reforms, 56 to be exact."

Those changes will stop what he claimed was abuse of the law with "politicized queries" and to prevent another "Russia hoax debacle," Johnson said echoing Trump's views. He said Congress was stepping in to "police" the FBI because the agency had not adequately regulated itself.

Nonetheless, Johnson said the law is too important to allow it to go away. The speaker said the law protects the United States from terrorist attacks, allows law enforcement to track chemicals used to create deadly fentanyl and safeguards against theft of U.S. intellectual property by China.

"That's all the things empowered and allowed by this set of laws, this statute, and we can't allow that to expire or elapse," he said.

Johnson added that Trump himself used intelligence from the FISA provisions to "kill terrorists."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump, House speaker to meet at Mar-a-Lago for 'major announcement'