Mike Johnson might have the toughest job in US politics right now. As Speaker of the House, the Republican congressman – and Donald Trump arch-loyalist – is the man most responsible for ending the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, for which voters blame his party more than Democrats.

In the next week, he will also have to face a fresh backlash as millions of voters find out their health insurance premiums for next year will rise by hundreds of dollars a month because of decisions Johnson made to pass Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill . And at the same time, millions more Americans will struggle even to eat as benefits to help low-income Americans feed their families – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) – expire.

But Johnson’s biggest political headache is one that

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