Long before the D.C. mayor declared a state of emergency, Republicans were already dealing with one of their own. Friday’s cliffhanger vote for Mike Johnson (R-La.) as House speaker may have happened before the snow, but it previewed the kind of storm GOP leaders face as they try to lead the chamber with the narrowest majority in 100 years. For the incoming president and his aggressive agenda, it’s shaping up to be tough sledding — and not just because of the weather.

While Johnson did win the gavel, the squeaker of a vote revealed some very real fault lines in his fractious party. To the astonishment of most Americans, three Republicans threatened to tank the speaker’s reelection — a mission that was aborted as soon as the president-elect stepped in. According to RealClearPolitics, Reps. Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Keith Self (Texas) took a stern call from Donald Trump for threatening to upend his pick to lead the House. “I won all these swing states,” the incoming president allegedly said, “but while Democrats are over there sticking together, you two guys are screwing it all up. The American people want relief and the Trump agenda.”

Whatever the message, it was obviously received, as both men walked to the House floor and changed their vote. But not without grumbling from Johnson’s detractors. “Today, we voted for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House because of our steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors,” the House Freedom Caucus insisted. “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record over the past 15 months.”

To other conservatives, the show of defiance made zero sense. “There was a handful of people who had made the statements that they wouldn’t necessarily support Mike Johnson,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) pointed out to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Friday’s “Washington Watch,” “which I never personally understood.”

“Mike … he’s a man of character,” the Texan argued. “He’s a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus. He’s a scholar. … He’s just the real deal. … I’ve watched him up close and comfortable the last … eight or so years he’s been here — maybe a little more. And why they wouldn’t support him is beyond me,” he shook his head, “other than maybe to get attention, or maybe to call attention to some things that really, quite frankly, Speaker Johnson has already agreed to change…”

His colleague, Missouri Republican Mark Alford agreed. “Mike Johnson listens to people,” he insisted to Perkins. “He understands there are differences, but he’s also trying to move people along. And in order to move people along, you have to listen. You know Mike. He is a conservative at heart. And so … I believe he gets that side of it, and he understands where [the hardliners are] coming from.” But, as he cautioned, “The American people are tired of what’s going on here on Capitol Hill. They want action. And it’s our job to fulfill this destiny that we’re on right now to truly … make America great again.”

That’s not to say that frustrated Republicans don’t have a right to be disappointed in the deals that leaders have been forced to cut. But frankly, Weber said, with wafer-thin margins like these, the next two years are going to require more of the same compromise.

“You’re going to have some situations that you don’t necessarily like or don’t necessarily agree with,” he said matter-of-factly. But “how about we get behind closed doors, and how about we hammer that out and have that discussion about give-and-take? Let’s not do it [on] social media. And I think that’s one of the things that we need to learn up here. Let’s have the family get back behind closed doors and have a family discussion,” he urged. “Mike’s … got God’s plan on his mind. He’s got [America’s] best interest in his heart, and he’s going to do the right thing. We just need to learn to have this discussion.”

And based on the incoming president’s ambitious plans, there will be plenty to discuss. Winter weather or not, the speaker isn’t wasting any time. “We’ve got to get to work beginning immediately on Monday,” he declared over the weekend.

No wonder, RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegmann told Perkins on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill.” “If you compare this Trump administration to the one that was incoming in 2017, it’s night and day. … The incoming president knows what he wants to do, and he has surrounded himself with people who know how to do it. I think that he is likely to hit the seam and move as quickly as possible, because he knows there’s not a second term after this. … And that’s why I think that we’ve seen a very streamlined transition in comparison to the one that we saw in 2017 [which] was a bit more conventional. … He’s no longer a political novice,” Wegmann reminded people. “He’s no longer that babe in the woods. He has an eye [on] … what he actually wants to see accomplished.”

Getting those legislative priorities across the finish line will be tricky though. In a Congress ruled by Republicans without wide majorities, the GOP will have to rely on a budget tool called reconciliation. Under this process, the majority party can fast-track a funding bill through the Senate — without filibusters — and pass it with 51 votes instead of the 60 normally required to end debate. But under the chamber’s rules, Republicans will only get two bites at the reconciliation apple a year, meaning, Johnson warned, that both chambers will have to have all of their “ducks in a row.”

His second-in-command, fellow Louisianan Steve Scalise (R), talked more in-depth about the strategy with Perkins late last year. The challenge, the House majority leader explained, “has always been getting 60 votes in the Senate. And unfortunately … all of those bills that we’ve brought through the House [in 2023 and 2024], the Democratic Senate, run by [Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, has not brought up any of them.” Democrats, he complained, have “made it clear they don’t want to work with us on those issues. And so, you have this one tool called budget reconciliation, which is a unique tool, but it’s very narrow.”

Republicans will be limited in what they can do under reconciliation, Scalise warned. “For example, you can’t put just pure policy in the bill. It’s got to be focused on budget reduction. ... And so that’s why tax policy can be put into the reconciliation [proposal], because it has a direct impact on the 10-year budget outlays. … So some things you can do, some things you can’t. We’re kind of going to push the limits of that envelope — but we’re working on what those limits are right now.”

Projects like the border wall could easily be tied to the budget, he believes, or even energy policy and cuts to ballooning federal agencies. Ultimately, Scalise stressed, “it’s the Senate parliamentarian that makes the determination [of what can or cannot] go in. So, it’s not a House tool. It’s a Senate tool. … But if it’s more budget than policy, then more than likely it can go in.”

As Johnson reiterated Sunday on Fox, Republicans have been hard at work on these scenarios with the Trump team for a while. Whatever form reconciliation takes, he’s hopeful that it will address several of voters’ concerns. “So a lot of moving pieces, a lot of things to negotiate, a lot of opinions on all that. So, we’ll be working long, long hours with whiteboards, making sure every Republican is on board,” he vowed.

Despite the headwinds both GOP chambers face, there’s plenty of optimism coursing through the snow-covered Hill. “I think there’s a buzz and excitement from the new members, this new energy, new blood,” Alford observed. “All different backgrounds come together and bring the best of America here to do the job for the American people. And there’s an excitement for that, the newness. But there’s also an excitement that we have a leader who is under the direction of God Almighty, who wants to put God first — and our country and our families and … get back to the true American values.”

“I want to get back to a Norman Rockwell America,” the Missourian said. “I feel like we’ve been living in a Rocky Horror Picture Show under President Biden, and it’s time to get back to sanity and the common sense that President Trump stands for.”