11-08-2025
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Shreveport featured on cover of this iconic news magazine
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Shreveport is featured on the cover of Time magazine, a prestigious position reserved for the world's top newsmakers and culture influencers.
Johnson's unlikely rise to speaker in 2023 and his political marriage to President Donald Trump is profiled in the cover story reported by Eric Cortellessa and Nik Popli in the Aug. 18 issue of Time with the headline: "How Mike Johnson Became Trump's Speaker."
The story details how Johnson rattled off a series of wins for Trump, culminating with the passage of the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill."
'Getting the One Big Beautiful Bill across the finish line,' Vice President J.D. Vance tells TIME, 'was a defining moment of his speakership."
'We are a well-oiled machine now,' Johnson says in the Time story. 'That's a very different dynamic than what took place in the first term."
The Time story also focuses on Johnson's Christianity as "a cornerstone of his life" and chronicles his boyhood in Shreveport and how the survival of his firefighter father Pat following an exposion shaped his faith as a 12-year-old.
'God kind of miraculously saved his life,' the speaker says in Time. 'Faith became a very real thing to me.'
Time's story illustrates how Johnson's success as speaker exceeded initial expectations even in his own caucus.
When one of his members asked if he was proud of making history following the passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill," Time's story quoted Johnson as laughing and saying, "No. I'm so tired of making history."
More: Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats would impeach Trump a third time with majority
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana profiled on cover of iconic magazine
