House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) Director of House Operations Hannah Fraher had a Never Trump conniption when the Washington, DC, Young Republicans endorsed former President Donald Trump for president, emails obtained by Breitbart News show.
Fraher is one of the most powerful staffers in Johnson’s office and controls all matters relating to the Capitol grounds, access to the building, and more. The Speaker of the House has enormous control and power over the Capitol complex, and Fraher is his lead staffer on that front—and was hired into the position in November 2023, shortly after Johnson won the speakership. According to her LinkedIn page, she previously worked as a senior counsel on the House Committee on Administration, and before that, she worked in Johnson’s personal office. She also previously served as a legal aide for Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and has a history of various Republican positions dating back a decade to when she interned for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the first half of 2013 when Rubio was championing the Gang of Eight amnesty plan in the Senate. Rubio, after losing the 2016 GOP presidential primary to Trump, has since reformed on the issue of immigration and clearly learned what was wrong with that approach, but when Fraher interned for him from January 2013 to May 2013, it was when he was pushing that plan.
What is revealed here for the first time is just how aggressively anti-Trump this very powerful Johnson aide truly is. Emails exclusively obtained by Breitbart News show that Fraher, whom Johnson hired into this top position just a few months after she sent these messages, melted down when the DC Young Republicans endorsed Trump for president in May 2023.
The DC Young Republicans issued the endorsement of Trump’s 2024 campaign for president on May 24, 2023, at 8:12 p.m. ET. “Now, more than ever, we need a champion. We need a leader that knows how to fight and who to fight,” the DC Young Republicans said in the endorsement of Trump. “We need a Caesar with the experience to navigate the battlefield and the instinct and vigor to charge forward like a young crusader. We need a President that puts America First. We need Donald J. Trump in 2024.”
The reason that date and time are significant is that that is the day that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 GOP presidential primary against Trump, and he had done his widely-panned campaign launch with Elon Musk on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, just hours before. A Republican club endorsing a former GOP president for reelection would otherwise seem unremarkable and be standard GOP fare, but what happened in response to the DC Young Republicans emailing the endorsement to its membership list is particularly revealing.
Fraher, in response to the organization’s endorsement announcement email, accused the group of violating its bylaws by endorsing Trump. She demanded her dues be refunded, and she threatened to quit the group.
“Given this is in violation of the bylaws, I would like a refund of my dues,” Fraher wrote back to the board of the DC Young Republicans. “Let me know however it is easiest for you to make that happen.”
The group’s official email account wrote back to her in all caps: “NO REFUNDS!”
Fraher replied with an obscenity.
“That’s fucking ridiculous. You’re a joke,” Fraher replied.
The DC Young Republicans email account dismissed her concerns in reply: “Don’t care loser.”
That was not the end of it, either. Fraher, sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News, totally melted down in person in emotional interactions with others in the nation’s capitol about it all in anti-Trump tirades. Fraher regularly criticized Trump and attacked the former president, complaining about him to several people who spoke with Breitbart News. Sources familiar with the matter say Fraher regularly whined about Trump’s personality and said things like she could never support him for president in 2024.
At the time she sent these emails, per her LinkedIn page, she was working in Johnson’s personal congressional office as a “senior counsel.” She went to work for the House Administration Committee for a few months from June 2023 to November 2023. Johnson would, of course, go on to become Speaker of the House in October 2023, just a few months after then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted, and shortly thereafter, he brought Fraher back onto his team in the senior capacity in which she currently serves.
Johnson’s spokesman Raj Shah has not answered detailed questions about this matter from Breitbart News, including if Johnson still has confidence in Fraher given these revelations. Shah has also not answered a question Breitbart News sent him for Fraher in particular, specifically whether she still hates Trump or if she supports him now that he is the presumptive GOP nominee for president.
“Not commenting,” Shah simply said in response to inquiries on the matter.
Fraher, sources familiar with the matter add, has recently told people she intends to try to get a job in a future Trump administration should Trump win the election in November. It is unclear if this episode would hamper that possibility, but given the Trump team’s long memories with other GOP staffers and consultants, it would seem that this would factor into such a decision.