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Beyond Trump, Republican representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana are widely thought to be the main frontrunners for speaker. If Republicans couldn’t rally behind a permanent successor, Trump might also be in the awkward spot of staying on as speaker longer than anticipated. Even on his own proposed timeline – a “30, 60, or 90-day period” – he’d still need to negotiate real pieces of legislation. By seizing the speaker’s gavel, Trump could have depicted himself as the GOP’s white knight coming to save Republicans from themselves. He’s the one leader capable of unifying the party, or at least beating it into submission.
Does the Speaker of the House Need To Be a Member of Congress?
Over the summer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he's had numerous conversations with Trump, who he said wants him to become speaker of the house. So, theoretically, Republicans could choose to put Trump in the speaker's chair by a majority vote. However, Trump's been noncommittal on the idea and it's possible he wouldn't even want the position if it was offered to him. It would require the creation of an ad hoc committee, appointed by the speaker and chaired by a senior Republican member of the Committee on Rules of the House. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Foreign aid passes: How the delay in funding affected Ukraine and Israel wars
Donald Trump backs Mike Johnson after Mar-a-Lago meeting - BBC.com
Donald Trump backs Mike Johnson after Mar-a-Lago meeting.
Posted: Fri, 12 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
That omission has occasionally led to speculation that there could be a nonmember leader of the House. The role of House speaker has importance outside of Congress; that person is second in the presidential line of succession just behind the vice president. Trump’s name was immediately floated by supporters after the successful vote to depose McCarthy, and a Trump adviser Tuesday night told NBC News that Republican members of the House had already been asking Trump to serve as an interim speaker. 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. The 2024 GOP presidential front-runner didn’t reject the idea of becoming speaker outright but insisted that he’s focused on his White House aspirations. However, with his freedom potentially at stake and an election rematch against President Biden possibly in the cards, it appears improbable, for now, that the former commander-in-chief would take the gavel.
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As summarized by Louis Jacobson for Politifact, many experts believe there is no constitutional requirement that the Speaker of the House be selected from among the House's members, even though this has never happened before. Back in 2015, Pete Williams reported for NBC that both the Clerk of the House and the House historian concurred with this view. McCarthy remains the favorite but Republican Representative Steve Scalise, who has been discussed as a potential alternative, is also in the running. It's also possible for members of the House to say Trump's name during the roll call vote. "There are certainly names that have been floated around, and hey, maybe I should nominate President Donald J. Trump tomorrow," Boebert told Hannity. The U.S. House of Representatives has failed to elect a new speaker in six ballots across two days as a group of Republicans continues to oppose Representative Kevin McCarthy.
In this case, that means the Speaker must get 218 votes, or half (plus one) of the 435 elected members of the House. The 44-year-old congressman, who has served two years in the House, voted against certifying Joe Biden's presidential victory in 2021. If Trump gets as far as a full House vote as the Republican nominee, it would take only a handful of Republican defectors to deliver the election to the expected Democratic nominee, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. This is not an idle threat, given that there are 18 House Republicans serving in districts won by Joe Biden in 2020 who would think long and hard before voting for Trump for speaker. "It requires that you actually get to the office at a reasonable hour and deal with the kinds of factional disputes that he would rather fuel, rather than settle," said C. Replying to a post on X citing Hannity’s comment about the push for a Trump speakership, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., shared a screenshot, saying, "I would direct your attention to rule 26(a) of the House Republican Conference rules for the 118th Congress."
Although a non-member of the house has never served as speaker in the institution’s 234-year history, a speaker isn’t actually required to be a Congress member. The constitution only states that the “House of Representatives shall chuse [sic] their Speaker and other Officers”. The Democrats look set to once again vote for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who ran for Speaker in January against McCarthy, although he would require several Republican votes to be elected. At least three GOP House members—Texas Rep. Troy Nehls, Florida's Greg Steube and Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene—have already indicated that they will support the former president in voting to select a new House Speaker. The House Republican Conference’s rules can be changed fairly easily by an internal vote that doesn’t require any input from House Democrats.
There are some Republicans who also think the idea is a bit of a political fever dream because Trump would be unable to cobble together the 218 votes needed to win a speaker’s race. 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. “My total focus is on being president,” Trump said, noting that there are other “great people” in the GOP who could handle the job. While the House speaker is not required to be a sitting member of Congress, it is still highly unlikely that Trump could garner enough House Republican votes to actually become speaker. A spokesperson later said the California representative had meant to say Trump thought McCarthy should be speaker. Nonetheless, chatter about the most unlikely of political comebacks has spread among Trump supporters since it was raised by his former adviser Steve Bannon and since Trump himself called it “so interesting” last week.
Even though these Republicans voiced support for Trump as speaker, the former president has said he would not be interested in taking the job. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said in a tweet tonight that former President Donald Trump is the only speaker candidate she’s “currently supporting.” “We can make him Speaker and then elect him President! Earlier today, Rep. Troy E. Nehls, R-Texas, said he plans to nominate Trump for speaker. Technically, you only need the support of half of the elected members who vote for a candidate by name to succeed. What this means is a Speaker could be elected with fewer than half of the total members if some of them do not show up to vote or they abstain (by calling "present", rather than the name of a candidate).
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) announced late Tuesday that he will file paperwork to nominate Trump for the role. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) also said they would back Trump for Speaker. Typically, rules are decided at the start of each session, which was in January. Again, it is highly unlikely a Trump nomination would reach the votes necessary to make him Speaker.
On Monday, the former president was asked about the idea in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. He retains control of the Republican party and has publicly mulled another run for the presidency in 2024. Donald Trump has “zero desire” to be speaker of the House of Representatives, a spokesman said, after the former president discussed the outlandish idea. In case this isn't obvious, Trump has been indicted for multiple felonies, across multiple jurisdictions, and the potential sentences are well in excess of two years behind bars.
Yet the former president and current GOP 2024 frontrunner is ineligible for the post under the party’s own rules barring anyone under indictment for serious charges from any House leadership role. "A lot of people have been calling me about speaker," he said outside the New York City courthouse, where he faces a civil trial involving his business holdings. "All I can say is we will do whatever is best for the country and other Republican Party and people."
Furthermore, even if the rules were changed, Trump would still have to face a vote that could quite plausibly not land in his favor. "Getting Trump elected speaker would be a tougher task—every Democrat would vote no, and it only requires five non-MAGA GOPs to follow suit," Morgan said. "Changing the indictment rule risks charges of hypocrisy towards the Republican Party," Landman said. Kevin McCarthy's ousting as speaker of the House on Tuesday led to questions over the possibility of Donald Trump being able to, in theory, take over the role. McCarthy's removal was instigated by pro-Trump Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Trump inserts himself into the House speaker succession battle - Axios
Trump inserts himself into the House speaker succession battle.
Posted: Thu, 05 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, triggered an all-out split in his own party’s ranks last week by finally agreeing, after months of stalling, to a floor vote on the $95bn foreign aid programme. Passed by the Senate in February, it contained about $60bn for Ukraine, $14bn for Israel, and a smaller amount for Taiwan and other Pacific allies. Now, before Saturday’s extraordinary vote in Congress on a foreign aid package, they have erupted into open warfare – a conflict that the vote itself is unlikely to contain. The U.S. Senate has rejected both articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, swiftly ending the trial triggered by the House's narrow vote to impeach in February.
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