Winners win---conflict makes speakers stronger.

Meanwhile, McCarthy allies have aggressively pushed back on the idea that the speaker is a short-timer who’s trying to quickly check off all of the boxes of the job before a hasty exit. They argue that McCarthy, who served in leadership for 14 years before he fulfilled his lifelong ambition of becoming speaker, has had plenty of time to think and plot out what he’d like his speakership to look like.

“I think he’s been thinking about what he’d liked to do for a long time,” said Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., who has served with McCarthy over the past eight years. “He’s always been a very energetic, thoughtful leader that knows what he wants to do.”

His allies also downplayed his meetings with foreign leaders, saying it simply comes with the role of being speaker, second in line to the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris. This week, McCarthy met with new United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. And he'll host his second joint session with a foreign leader on June 22, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses Congress.

"That’s what you do as speaker,” said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill, comparing McCarthy's meetings with world leaders to Pelosi’s. “I think Kevin thrives in those instances, and it’s part of the job, frankly, so I don’t think it’s anything unusual.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a former House member who was part of a coup attempt to oust then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, said GOP speakers will always face challenges from small conservative factions vying for power and influence.

“It’s always been that way, it always will be that way. … I was in those factions,” Graham said. McCarthy, he added, has “done a pretty darn good job.”

Perhaps no one is more familiar with these dynamics than the 58-year-old McCarthy. McCarthy spent years serving and studying under Speakers Boehner and Ryan as they clashed with the Freedom Caucus — the same rump group of conservatives that blocked McCarthy from the top job in October 2015 and nearly ended his political career. Now Gingrich, a mentor, regularly meets with McCarthy in the Capitol.

But McCarthy is operating with a much smaller majority than Boehner or Ryan had, complicating his ability to govern his GOP conference even more.

Asked repeatedly this week whether his speakership was in jeopardy, McCarthy remained both optimistic and defiant. He said he’s not concerned about a potential threat of a motion to vacate, and he’s confident he’ll be able to serve out the rest of his two-year term, arguing that his success will add to his reputation that he’s an underdog who keeps proving his critics wrong.

"I always think tension only makes you stronger. Conflict makes you stronger, if you deal with it. If you avoid it, it will perpetuate and become a bigger problem." McCarthy told reporters.