Former President Donald Trump reportedly expressed a willingness to serve as speaker of the House if he had been elected.
Former National Security Director retired Army General Michael Flynn and unsuccessful Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spoke with Trump Thursday. Both reportedly confirmed the former president’s statement, in a report from the Western Journal.
The Western Journal further reported:
“I talked to President Trump last night and told him he would be great and he should do it,” Lake told The Western Journal. “[I said] that he could take Congress from the most hated branch of [government] to the favorite branch.”
Lake’s pep talk appears to have worked, because Flynn told The Western Journal the following: “Trump says, ‘I will do it.’”
This would be a shocking turnaround for Trump, who has long supported Kevin McCarthy for speaker.
Trump’s name was actually brought up in Thursday’s vote when Matt Gaetz, a leader of the anti-McCarthy sect of Congress, nominated him as speaker.
In 11 ballots over the course of three days, McCarthy has failed to garner the 218 votes he needs to be speaker of the House.
Ironically, Gaetz, who nominated Trump on Thursday, attacked Trump’s decision to support McCarthy on Wednesday.
“Supporting McCarthy is the worst Human Resources decision President Trump has ever made,” Gaetz tweeted.
Interestingly, Gaetz punctuated his criticism of Trump with one of Trump’s hallmark phrases: “Sad!”
Regardless, now that Gaetz has floated the idea of Speaker Trump, the idea appears to have taken root with the former president.
As Article 1, Section 5, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution denotes, “the House of Representatives shall [choose] their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
This means that Trump, even though he is not a sitting member of Congress, is still allowed to seek the speakership.
Only James K. Polk has ever held the roles of both president and speaker.
Should Trump win the 2024 general election, he would likely have to vacate his position as speaker of the House.
But that’s a future problem for Speaker of the House Trump, should that ever come to fruition.
At the very least, America now knows that Trump is willing.
A 15th round of voting that concluded early Saturday morning elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as House speaker for the 118th Congress.
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