Why the ‘little secret’ between Trump and Speaker Johnson matters

Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was ugly and vulgar in a great many ways, but it was also lacking in subtlety. There was text, not subtext. The Republican and his allies relied on chainsaws, not scalpels.

With this in mind, there was a point during the former president’s comments that was unexpected.

Partway through the GOP candidate’s comments, Trump referenced House Speaker Mike Johnson, who also appeared at the New York City gathering. “He’s going to be around for a long time, I predict,” the former president said about the Louisiana congressman.

This was itself a comment that likely raised eyebrows among members of Congress: It’s not exactly a secret that Johnson’s standing in the House Republican Conference is precarious, and even if the GOP is able to maintain its majority in the chamber, the conventional wisdom suggests he’d face an intraparty fight to hold onto the speaker’s gavel.

With this in mind, Trump’s “prediction” will likely be seen as a signal of support that might very well improve Johnson’s chances.

But it was what the former president said in the next breath that I cared about more.

“We gotta get the congressmen elected and we gotta get the senators elected, because we can take the Senate pretty easily, and I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact,” Trump said while looking in Johnson’s direction.

Appearing to point at the House speaker, the former president added, “He and I have a secret. We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over.”

As a rule, national candidates never say this. In fact, it largely defeats the purpose of campaigns: White House hopefuls tend to talk all about the things they want to do after the election so that they can claim a popular mandate once they succeed.

And yet, there was Trump, bragging about having a “little secret” with the speaker of the House.

It’s difficult to say with confidence what he might’ve been referring to, though a Politico report noted that they were potentially “sinister comments that could be a reference to the House settling a contested election.”

The morning after the event, Rep. Dan Goldman appeared on CNN and shared some related thoughts. “I think the secret yesterday that [Trump] referenced very likely may relate to his compact with Mike Johnson to — as a back-up plan for when he loses — to overturn this election on Jan. 6,” the New York Democrat said.

Watch this space.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."