Speaking to the three top House Republican leaders over the past three days at the House GOP retreat here in Doral, Fla., revealed how President Trump is both the glue holding the fragile majority together and an earthquake that threatens to fracture it.

I sat down with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for a fireside chat at the House Republican retreat this week — which took place at the Trump National Doral resort — and got some rare insights on how he sees his relationship with the president.

Once news of the interview was public, I got plenty of suggestions from Democrats and outsiders on what to ask him about — mostly having to do with how he could accept Trump’s demands and actions.

But Johnson told me he “fully" supports Trump’s move to freeze federal grants — a response that surprised approximately zero reporters in the audience. Remember, Johnson said last week he would not “second-guess” Trump’s pardoning of violent Jan. 6 rioters, despite saying the day before inauguration that he expected the pardons to be on a case-by-case basis.

Johnson, who has become part of Trump’s inner circle, acknowledged that he doesn’t criticize the president. His guiding principle is Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

But he also insisted he is not a “yes man” when I asked how he handles his disagreements with Trump behind closed doors when they have differences of opinion on legislation and strategy.

“I don't agree with my wife 100 percent of the time,” Johnson said. He noted that he was on Trump’s impeachment defense team. “One of the reasons I think he respects this relationship that he and I have is that I give him counsel.”

Johnson went on:

→ “The job of a counselor, or somebody who is ostensibly one of an adviser, or somebody who brings a different perspective is, you're not supposed to be a yes man. I’m not. And I think that’s healthy. I think he respects it.”

JOHNSON’S REACTION TO TRUMP FLOATING seeking a third term made me think of the adage coined by the conservative writer Salena Zito in 2016: Take Trump seriously, but not literally.

In a speech to........

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