Former President Donald Trump has seemingly dropped his bid to succeed ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the role by backing controversial Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to step into the role.
In the early hours of Friday, Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that Jordan “will be a GREAT Speaker of the House of Representatives and has my complete and total approval!”
Earlier this week, it was reported that Trump had offered to take on the role of speaker as a means to unite Republicans. It was also reported that the ex-president would make a trip to the US Capitol for meetings as the Republican Party tries to break through the chaos caused by McCarthy’s removal.
The vote on the new chairman will take place on October 11. The other top contender for the role is Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise. On Tuesday, Jordan and Scalise will make their plea to fellow party members during a forum. The next speaker needs 218 votes, from both the Trump wing and the more centrist wings of the party.
“Congressman Jim Jordan was a STAR long before he made his very successful trip to Washington DC, where he represented Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump also wrote in his post.
Donald Trump shakes hands with Rep. Jim Jordan during a rally in Ohio in August 2018
The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls on Thursday evening said Trump had decided to support Jordan’s bid.
Trump, the Republican Party’s current presidential frontrunner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the Republican Party.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are deeply divided and some have asked him to lead them — a seemingly fanciful suggestion that he also promoted after stoking the divisions that ousted McCarthy as speaker.
Trump had told people in recent days that he favored Jordan for the post, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking who were granted anonymity to discuss it. But it was unclear whether he planned to announce it before Nehls’ tweet.
“I just had a great conversation with President Trump about the Speaker’s race. He supports Jim Jordan, and I believe Congress should listen to the leader of our party,” Nehls wrote late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In an interview later with The Associated Press, Nehls, who had encouraged Trump to run for the post, said the ex-president wanted Jordan instead.
“After he thought about it and this and that … he said he’s really in favor of getting behind Jim Jordan,” Nehls said. “He believes Jim Jordan is right for the job.”
Even though Jordan was considered “too conservative” to move up the ranks just a few short terms in Congress ago, “he has become, if you will, a mainstream leader within the conference,” Issa told DailyMail in an interview. com.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is gauging support to succeed Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House following Tuesday’s stunning vote to impeach the Californian
Jordan is one of two leading candidates maneuvering with Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana to become speaker. Both are trying to secure the 218 votes needed to win the job and need support from both far-right and moderate factions of the party. It’s unclear whether Trump’s support will force Scalise, the current Republican majority leader, out of the race, or whether either could reach the threshold.
Nehls even said that if no current candidate manages to gain the support needed to win, he would turn to Trump again. “Our conference is divided. Our country is broken. I don’t know who can reach 218,” he said in the interview.
Trump had been in talks earlier in the day to visit Capitol Hill next week, ahead of a vote that could take place as soon as Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
Trump confirmed the trip to Fox News Digital and said he would travel to meet with Republicans on Tuesday.
It would have been Trump’s first trip to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters attacked the building in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021. Trump has been charged in both Washington and Georgia over his efforts to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.
However, Nehls said it was unlikely Trump would make the trip after the endorsement.
Jordan is one of Trump’s biggest champions on the Hill and is leading the investigation into prosecutors who charged the former president. He was also part of a group of Republicans who worked with Trump to overturn his defeat before January 6.
Scalise has also worked closely with Trump over the years.
One of the people familiar with the planning had warned earlier Thursday that if Trump went ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk to Republican lawmakers and not pitch himself for the role.
Still, Trump continued to fuel speculation, telling Fox News Digital on Thursday that he would accept a short-term role as speaker — for anywhere from 30 to 90 days — if another candidate doesn’t have the votes to win.
“I was asked to speak as a unifying factor because I have so many friends in Congress,” he told the newspaper. “If they don’t get the vote, they’ve asked me if I would consider taking over as chairman until they find someone for the longer term because I’m running for president.”
In a social media post earlier in the day, he added that he will “do whatever is necessary to assist in the Speaker of the House selection process, in the short term, until the final selection of a GRAND REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is created – a president who will do that. help a new but very experienced president, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
The Republican conference is filled with members who generally support Trump, but whether they will support him as speaker remains to be seen. The role is a demanding one — effectively running the Capitol and dealing with hundreds of lawmakers — and requires attention to the arcane details of legislation that Trump showed little interest in even while president.
Former President Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz are close — the two are seen above at a November 2019 campaign rally in Florida
Majority Whip Steve Scalise gave an emphatic speech defending McCarthy before Tuesday’s vote
While he dominates his Republican presidential rivals, Trump is also still traveling to early primaries to campaign and spending much of his time on the four criminal charges and several civil cases he faces.
While there is no requirement that anyone be elected to the House to serve as speaker, each of the 55 speakers the House has chosen is a member of the chamber. From time to time, lawmakers have given their votes to people outside Congress, often in protest of the candidates running for office.
Trump helped McCarthy win the speakership in January after 15 rounds of voting. But he urged Republicans to impeach Biden and reject the deals McCarthy negotiated. Last month, he urged the right flank to support a government shutdown if Republicans didn’t get major budget cuts, declaring on social media that the GOP “has lost big on the debt ceiling, gained NOTHING and is now afraid that they will be blamed for the Budget closure. Wrong!!! Whoever is president will be blamed, in this case Crooked (as Hell!) Joe Biden!’
McCarthy ultimately decided to keep the government open for 45 days without the cuts demanded by far-right conservatives. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and longtime Trump ally, cited that decision as a reason to impeach the speaker.
Among those who pushed Trump for speaker was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Trump ally who did not vote to impeach McCarthy. She posted to X that she believed “he would take the job.”
Nehls, the Texas Republican who was among the first to promote Trump for the job, said before his Thursday night call with Trump that he had been contacted “by multiple members of Congress who were willing to support Donald J. Trump and offer nomination speeches. Be Speaker of the House.”
“Next week,” he wrote on X, “is going to be BIG.”