Following the removal of Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, from the position of House speaker through a motion initiated by staunch conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz, also from California, an unconventional candidate has emerged as a potential successor: former President Donald Trump.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Texas Representative Troy Nehls announced that his top priority when the House reconvenes will be to propose Donald J. Trump as the nominee for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
“President Trump, the greatest President of my lifetime, has a proven record of putting America First and will make the House great again,” he said.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., followed suit in a post on X on Tuesday evening: “@realDonaldTrump for Speaker.”
The upcoming House speaker isn’t required to be a current sitting member, although historically, every U.S. House speaker has been.
This isn’t the first instance where Donald Trump’s name has been proposed for the speakership. In January, during McCarthy’s struggle to secure enough votes for the speakership, Matt Gaetz cast his vote for Trump.
In a conversation with reporters on Capitol Hill after the Tuesday vote, Gaetz mentioned that he would support various members of Congress if they chose to run for the position. This list included GOP Representatives Tom Emmer, Mike Johnson, Jodey Arrington, Kevin Hern, and Steve Scalise, none of whom voted to remove McCarthy.
During the interim period until a replacement for McCarthy is chosen, Patrick McHenry, the House Financial Services chairman, will serve as the interim Speaker.
House rules dictated that when McCarthy was elected as speaker in January, he had to provide a secret list of members to succeed him as speaker pro tempore in case the office became vacant, as it did with his removal. It was revealed after the vote to remove McCarthy that Patrick McHenry was at the top of that list.
