DEVELOPING STORY: Speaker Trump?
Former President Donald J. Trump said he is opening to being the next House Speaker — provided it’s only temporary.
“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for president.”
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Trump told reporters, “A lot of people have been calling me about speaker. All I can say is we’ll do whatever is best for the country and the Republican Party.”
“My total focus is on being president,” the 77-year-old former president said. He noted that there are many “great people” in the GOP who could handle the job.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), while acknowledging that Trump would “be great” as speaker of the House, said Tuesday he’d prefer to see him in the Oval Office after the 2024 election.
“I want him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Jordan told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But if he wants to be speaker, that’s fine too.”
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Troy Nehls (R-Texas) have been the most vocal proponents of electing Trump to the speakership, with the former saying Trump is the “only candidate” she is supporting at the moment, and the latter vowing to nominate him.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who introduced the measure to dethrone McCarthy, has also said that “’Speaker Trump’ has a great ring to it.”
That time I nominated President Trump for Speaker… pic.twitter.com/lrW5SAIznP
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 5, 2023
