The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a conservative coup, torpedoing an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust the GOP leader from the top job for his willingness to cut deals with Democrats on weighty legislation.

The chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table, or dismiss, Greene’s motion-to-vacate resolution, preventing the removal proposal from being considered.

In an extraordinary move in the deeply divided House, 163 Democrats — more than three-quarters of their Caucus — voted to keep Johnson in power. And in a demonstration of the GOP’s support for Johnson, only 11 conservative Republicans voted to send Greene’s motion to the floor. The chamber erupted in boos on both sides of the aisle when Greene began reading her resolution.

The outcome was not a surprise.

Democratic leaders had announced last week that they would protect Johnson from Greene’s removal gambit. But it dealt a major blow to the Georgia firebrand, who has alienated a vast majority of the GOP conference — including many like-minded Johnson critics — and, perhaps more significantly, bucked the position of former President Trump, who has gone out of his way to demonstrate his support for Johnson amid Greene’s removal threat.

Highlighting that division, Trump on Wednesday praised Greene’s “spirit” but urged GOP lawmakers to vote to sink her resolution to unite against Democrats in a statement posted minutes after the vote had already taken place.

“[I]f we show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Mike Johnson is a good man who is trying very hard.”

The vote........

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