Speaker Mike Johnson appointed a relatively unknown MAGA loyalist on Thursday to lead the House Intelligence Committee after he stunned colleagues by ousting the previous chairman—who blamed his firing on Donald Trump.

Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas is now set to take over the powerful committee, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA and the FBI.

Crawford—a former Army veteran and rodeo announcer—is a conservative hardliner compared to his predecessor, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio. Crawford voted against certifying the 2020 election results; Turner voted in favor of validating Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump.

Both moderates and conservatives said they believe Crawford is qualified for the job. But some centrists and national security hawks were fuming at Johnson for ousting Turner.

“Politically, this is a stupid move by the speaker,” one senior GOP lawmaker told the Daily Beast, adding, “No one is happy about it.”

The House member predicted the move could hinder Johnson’s ability to govern and pass Trump’s legislative agenda, saying, “He has created an enemy when he needs every vote moving forward. You can’t afford to be putting members in positions where they have nothing to lose. Very poor calculation.”

Turner told colleagues that Johnson cited Trump as the motivator behind his decision to remove the Ohio Republican from his position. Johnson, however, denied that assertion to reporters on Wednesday evening.

Ironically, Turner attended a meeting of House committee chairs with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

Democrats also slammed Johnson for removing Turner from the role, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling it “shameful.”

Turner came under fire last February for releasing a statement calling on President Joe Biden to declassify information on a “serious national security threat,” which ultimately turned out to be a “serious but non-urgent” matter. The move blindsided leadership and sparked calls for his resignation from GOP hardliners, who objected to Turner’s stance on FISA—which allows the government to spy on noncitizens abroad—and his advocacy for Congress to pass additional Ukraine funding.

“Since joining the Committee in 2017, I have witnessed firsthand that abuse within our nation’s security apparatus has eroded trust in our institutions and compromised America’s ability to gather intelligence,” Crawford said in a statement.

Turner was appointed as chairman by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and will no longer serve on the intel panel at all.

While most chairs and committee assignments are voted on by the steering committee, solely the speaker is tasked with selecting who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Johnson praised Crawford’s experience on the panel and thanked Turner in his announcement.

“The House Intel Committee will play a pivotal role in this work in the new Congress, and Rick Crawford will provide principled leadership as its chairman,” the speaker said in a statement.

“Outgoing Chairman Mike Turner deserves our gratitude for his leadership and critical work in the 118th Congress,” he added.

In addition to tapping Crawford, Johnson tapped Reps. Ann Wagner, Ben Cline, Greg Steube, Claudia Tenney and Pat Fallon to sit on the committee.

“As Chairman, I will aggressively uphold our mandate to provide credible and robust oversight of the Intelligence Community’s funding and activities. Without aggressive oversight and vigorous protection of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, the IC is prone to give in to mission creep and skirt U.S. laws. In all our work, I pledge to preserve Americans’ constitutional rights even as we work to support the IC in doing everything required to collect indispensable information from our foreign adversaries,” Crawford said in his statement.