Former President Donald Trump has apparently abandoned his bid to succeed ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by endorsing controversial Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to take on the role.
In the early hours of Friday morning, Trump used his social media platform Truth Social to announce that Jordan “will be a GREAT Speaker of the House and has my full and unqualified endorsement!”
Earlier this week it was reported that Trump had offered to take on the role of speaker to unite Republicans. It was also reported that the ex-president would travel to the US Capitol for meetings as the GOP tries to sort out the chaos caused by McCarthy’s ouster.
The vote on the new speaker will take place on October 11th. The other main candidate for the role is Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise. On Tuesday, Jordan and Scalise will present their arguments to their party colleagues at a forum. The next speaker needs 218 votes from both the Trump wing and the more centrist wing of the party.
“Congressman Jim Jordan was a STAR long before he began his very successful trip to Washington, DC, representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump also wrote in his post.
Donald Trump shakes hands with Representative Jim Jordan during a rally in Ohio in August 2018
The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said Thursday evening that Trump had decided to support Jordan’s bid.
Trump, the current Republican presidential front-runner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the Republican Party.
House Republicans are deeply divided and some have asked him to lead them – a seemingly fanciful proposal that he also supported after inflaming divisions that ousted McCarthy as speaker.
Trump had been telling people in recent days that he preferred Jordan for the job, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter. However, it was unclear whether he intended to announce this before Nehls’ tweet.
“Just had a great conversation with President Trump about the speaker pick.” “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 a later interview with The Associated Press, Nehls, who had encouraged Trump to run for the post himself, said the ex-president wanted Jordan instead.
“After thinking about it and this and that … he said he was really in favor of getting behind Jim Jordan,” Nehls said. “He believes Jim Jordan is the right person for the job.”
Although Jordan was considered “too conservative” to rise to leadership positions just a few Congressional terms ago, “he has become, if you will, a mainstream leader of the conference,” Issa told in an interview.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is assessing support to replace Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker after Tuesday’s surprise vote to remove the Californian
Jordan is one of two leading candidates running for speaker, along with Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Both are trying to secure the 218 votes needed to win the election and need the support of both the party’s far-right and moderate factions. It’s unclear whether Trump’s support will push Scalise, the current GOP majority leader, out of the race, or whether either can reach the threshold.
In fact, Nehls said he would turn to Trump again if no current candidate managed to garner the support needed to win. “Our conference is divided. Our country is broken. “I don’t know who can come close to 218,” he said in the interview.
Trump had already held discussions earlier in the day about a visit to Capitol Hill next week ahead of a speakership vote, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement , which could take place as early as Wednesday.
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 visit to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters attacked the building on January 6, 2021 to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Trump has been impeached over his visit to both Washington and Georgia in 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 once approved.
Jordan is one of Trump’s biggest supporters on the Hill and led the investigation into prosecutors who indicted the former president. He was also among a group of Republicans who worked with Trump to overturn his defeat before January 6th.
Scalise has also worked closely with Trump over the years.
One of the people familiar with the planning had already warned Thursday that if Trump does make the visit, he would be there to talk to Republican lawmakers, not to campaign 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 30 to 90 days – if another candidate did not have the votes to win.
“I was asked to speak as a mediator because I have so many friends in Congress,” he told the medium. “If they don’t get the vote, they asked me if I would consider taking over as speaker until they find someone with a 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 short-term selection process for Speaker of the House until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER – a Speaker who will “Help a new but very experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The Republican conference is full of members who generally support Trump, but whether they would support him as speaker remains to be seen. The role is a demanding position — she effectively runs the Capitol and deals with hundreds of lawmakers — and requires attention to the arcane details of legislation that Trump himself showed little interest in as 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 Leader Steve Scalise gave a forceful speech defending McCarthy before Tuesday’s vote
As he dominates his Republican presidential rivals, Trump is also still traveling to early primary states to campaign and has spent much of his time focused on the four criminal indictments and several civil cases he faces.
Although there is no requirement for a person to be elected as Speaker of the House, each of the 55 Speakers elected by the House has been a member of the chamber. From time to time, lawmakers have cast their votes outside of Congress, often in protest against the running candidates.
Trump helped McCarthy win as speaker in January after 15 rounds of voting. But he urged Republicans to impeach Biden and reject the deals negotiated by McCarthy. Last month, he urged the right flank to support a government shutdown if Republicans didn’t impose deep spending cuts, saying on social media that Republicans “suffered big on the debt ceiling, got NOTHING, and are now worried that they will be held responsible.” Budget shutdown. Incorrect!!! Whoever is president will be blamed, in this case crooked (hellish!) 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 for the speaker’s removal.
Among those urging Trump to speak was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Trump ally who did not vote to remove McCarthy. She posted on X that she thought “he would take the job.”
Nehls, the Texas Republican who was among the first to pitch Trump for the post, said before his meeting with Trump on Thursday evening that he had been “contacted by several members of Congress who were willing to endorse Donald J. Trump and give nomination speeches for him to be Speaker of the House of Representatives.’
“Next week,” he wrote on X, “will be HUGE.”