Inexperienced and untested, the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives faces a baptism of fire as he contends with a pile-up of deadlines, a razor-thin majority and a raucous right wing that is unlikely to allow him an extended honeymoon period.
Mike Johnson — a committed Donald Trump acolyte and an instinctive fiscal and social conservative to his core — almost certainly harbors ambitions to drastically rein in spending and government regulation.
But his first days as speaker are brimming with more immediate business, chiefly averting a government shutdown that will bite on Nov. 17 unless he can find a compromise with the Democratic-controlled Senate.