Art of the Conceal -- Speaker Mike Johnson Has Turned Playing Dumb Into a Strategy to Ignore Trump
Asked this week about reports that the Trump administration had quietly purged several senior ICE officials, Speaker Mike Johnson offered his signature shrug. “I’m not aware of that,” he said. “I don’t know the details.”
It was a classic Johnson reply: calm, pleasant, and intentionally uninformed. His chronic ignorance looks less like a habit than a strategy — a way to stay in the good graces of President Donald Trump, who rewards loyalty above all. In Trump’s Washington, knowledge is dangerous. Knowing too much can force you to act, make you responsible, even put you at odds with the leader who prefers fealty to fact. So Johnson has mastered a subtler art: performative ignorance.
“I’m not aware” does more than dodge a question — it signals allegiance. And Johnson isn’t alone. What began as his personal survival tactic has become the operating principle of Republican congressional leadership: the less you know, the less you must do.
The pattern is everywhere. Asked about Trump’s threats to withhold disaster aid from blue states? They’re “not familiar.” Presidential meddling in DOJ investigations? “Haven’t been briefed.” The ICE purge? “I’ll have to look into that.” It’s a party-wide pantomime of obliviousness — almost comedic, if the stakes weren’t constitutional.
Here are three standout moments of this act in action:
Mike Johnson’s ‘I’m Not Aware of That’ Habit https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/speaker-mike-johnson-has-perfected-the-art-of-ignoring-trump-by-playing-dumb/
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