House Speaker Donald Trump?
Now that there’s an opening, a handful of House Republicans are calling for it and the former president is both publicly and privately toying with the idea.
“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,” Trump, 77, told reporters Wednesday outside the Manhattan courtroom where his civil fraud trial is ongoing.
“My total focus is on being president,” Trump added, noting that there are other “great people” in the GOP who could handle the job.
However, a Republican House aide told The Post Wednesday that the GOP kingpin is indeed “interested in the job.”
While the Speaker of the House doesn’t technically have to be a sitting member of Congress, having an outsider fill the role — let alone a former president — would be unprecedented.
Moreover, there are House rules in place restricting those with felony indictments from serving in the role.
“A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed,” the Conference Rules of the 118th Congress say.
Trump has 91 criminal counts pending against him spanning across four indictments, with a potential penalty totaling more than 400 years behind bars.
Those rules could be tweaked, but having to fend off those legal battles while simultaneously juggling a gig as speaker could prove to be challenging even for someone with Trump’s self-proclaimed dynamism.
Still, the prospect of Trump negotiating government spending with his potential 2024 rival President Biden is proving to be quite alluring to some Republicans.
“Kevin McCarthy will NOT be running again as Speaker. I nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the House,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) posted Tuesday night on X, formerly Twitter.
Nehls was not among the eight who voted to give former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the boot, but he is generally aligned with the hardliners.
“I think we need an outsider. The idea that we could bring in somebody from the outside, because Congress has been broken for so many years, so many decades,” Nehls told WABC radio’s “Rita Cosby Show.” “Maybe some new leadership with a new vision would be good for the House of Representatives.”
“If there were Republicans that thought he isn’t the right guy, I would want them to tell me why he isn’t the guy,” Nehls added.
“The only candidate for Speaker I am currently supporting is President Donald J. Trump. He will end the war in Ukraine. He will secure the border,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X.
“We can make him Speaker and then elect him President! He will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
“He’d be great,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Oh.) told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday. “I want him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but if he wants to be Speaker, that’s fine too.”
Jordan announced his intent to vie for the speakership Wednesday morning.
“Frankly, Speaker Trump has a great ring to it,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who spearheaded the crusade to sink McCarthy and has dangled Trump’s name in the past.
The most recent speaker seemed less enthused about the idea.
“You’ve got to be in the institution to understand how it works,” McCarthy, who has not publicly endorsed anyone to replace him, told reporters Tuesday night.
Either way, the White House insists that Biden will work with the next speaker regardless of who he or she is.
“Once the House has met their responsibility to elect a Speaker, [Biden] looks forward to working together with them and with the Senate to address the American peoples’ priorities,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Tuesday.