WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Republican Mike Johnson was returned as speaker of the US House of Representatives on Friday with the crucial backing of incoming president Donald Trump, ending a bitter standoff that threatened to see the 2025 session opening in chaos.

Johnson had angered backbenchers by working with Democrats to pass legislation, and his victory was secured only after tense backroom negotiations that saw more than a dozen rank-and-file Republicans voice doubts over his leadership.

A chaotic 2023-25 session was marked by conservative anger in particular over the Louisiana lawmaker’s handling of spending negotiations, as fiscal hawks lined up to accuse him of being soft on the deficit.

In the end there were only three Republican holdouts as voting began — with all 215 Democrats backing their leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Congressional media outlet Punchbowl News reported that Johnson was able to keep his speakership ambitions alive after Trump intervened personally to speak to two of the rebels by phone —just before they changed their votes.

“After four years of high inflation, we have a big agenda. We have a lot to do, and we can do it in a bipartisan fashion,” Johnson said as he pledged to help Trump transform the economy.

“We can fight high inflation, and we must. We’ll give relief to Americans, and we’ll extend the Trump tax cuts... We’re going to drastically cut back the size and scope of government, we’re going to return the power back to the people.”

With the exception of Kentucky conservative hardliner Thomas Massie, the opposition to Johnson always looked soft, and he had spent much of the week working the phones and holding meetings with the conservatives who had opposed his candidacy.