House Speaker Mike Johnson has developed a playbook for a Republican-controlled Congress to jumpstart Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.

Mr. Johnson said the game plan for a Republican-controlled Washington will “put points on the board quickly.” 

“We’d be prepared to lead on Day One in the new Congress,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview with The Washington Times. He called the trifecta of a GOP-run House, Senate and White House a “magic” moment for the country.

Mr. Johnson, who on Thursday marked the first anniversary of his election as speaker, said his game plan will also help him keep the gavel come January.

“I don’t think we can afford to change coaches or quarterbacks,” Mr. Johnson said. “And so I think what is going to be important for our success is continuity of leadership, and that’s what I’m going to offer.”

The playbook addresses the top issues for voters in the election: immigration and the economy. 

Border security will be the top priority, the Louisiana Republican said, with Mr. Trump aggressively using executive authorities to end the border chaos. The House would follow “with some really strong border security legislation,” likely similar to the Secure the Border Act or H.R. 2.

That passed the House in 2023 but languished in the Democratic-run Senate, and President Biden threatened to veto it. Mr. Johnson scoffed at the Senate’s attempt at a bipartisan border package from late last year, which was written by three Senators and died amid opposition from senators on both sides of the aisle.

“They never sent it to us. They couldn’t pass it,” Mr. Johnson said. “So H.R. 2 was a border security bill. That’s a different piece of legislation [than] immigration reform. We really need both. But we got to secure the border first, and I think there’s going to be an immediate and urgent priority.”

Next will be a focus on the economy.

Mr. Johnson said that Republicans would look to extend the Trump-era tax cuts, which are slated to expire at the end of 2025, prioritizing manufacturing in the U.S. to gain an edge on China. He also envisions changes to the country’s energy policy, much of which would be doing the opposite of the Biden-Harris administration.

A big part of that agenda will be an overhaul of the federal regulatory apparatus.

“A major focus of the next Congress and the administration is dramatic regulatory reform,” Mr. Johnson said. 

For the game plan to work, Republicans will have to win the House, and that’s far from certain with just over a week until the Nov. 5 elections.

Conventional wisdom in Washington points to Democrats gaining the House majority and Republicans taking control of the Senate. However, Mr. Johnson said he ardently believed that Republicans would maintain their grip on the lower chamber and grow their three-seat majority.

Whether Democrats or Republicans win the House majority, the contest will likely be tight. Large majorities for either party are unlikely in this election.

If the GOP performs well on Nov. 5 and gets a boost from Mr. Trump, the speaker predicted he would at least bridge a double-digit majority.  

“I’m convinced that I am going to have a larger majority to work with,” he said. “The specific number, I’m not sure.”

Mr. Johnson’s future as the speaker, in part, hinges on whether he can deliver another term with Republicans in control. It also depends on whether he has won over conservative critics such as Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Both Mr. Massie and Ms. Greene tried and failed to use the motion to vacate to oust Mr. Johnson, similar to how former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California was booted from the job in October 2023.

The rule, which has been blamed for much of the dysfunction in the current Congress, will be under intense scrutiny when the majority party writes the rules for the new Congress.

Mr. Johnson said that it was not his place to dictate what those changes, if any, might be if Republicans run the chamber in January.