With an early morning post on social media Friday, Trump inserted himself into the chaotic race to replace Kevin McCarthy as House speaker by endorsing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for the job. | Picture: P.A.
Donald Trump tests the power of his support again.
With an early morning social media post Friday, Trump inserted himself into the chaotic race to replace Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House supporting Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for the post. The move is the latest example of Trump’s attempt to expand his influence within a Republican Party that he has already fundamentally reshaped in the eight years since he first ran for the White House.
“I think he’s doing well. I hope he succeeds,” Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, said of Jordan in an interview Friday with Real America’s Voice. “He has competition, as you understand. And they are friends with me too. Very nice people and good people. We’ll see what happens.”
With Trump’s firm grip on the Republican base, his support can effectively clear the field in many congressional primaries. But the presidential race is more complex, an intraparty struggle that will play out in secret at times and in a tense environment with many Republicans furious at McCarthy’s ouster. Jordan faces at least one other candidate – Parliamentary Majority Leader Steve Scalise – who is also on good terms with Trump. It is unclear whether anyone has enough votes to win the gavel and if Jordan loses, another Trump ally could emerge.
Taken together, these dynamics mean that Trump’s support for Jordan may not influence the results. And maybe that doesn’t matter much after all.
Whoever the next speaker is, Trump has undeniable influence over House Republicans. These are his supporters, led by the representative from Florida. Matt Gaetz — who orchestrated McCarthy’s ouster and drove much of the Republican Party’s agenda. They have been unable or unwilling to extricate themselves from his grip and now face another presidential election with him at the top of the ticket, even though many in the party worry about his electability in November and his potential impact on the elections. groceries.
But other factors come into play in these complex deliberations. Presidential elections are contests that can depend on personal relationships and agreements among lawmakers that stray from ideological lines.
It is also unclear what political capital Trump intends to use to vote for Jordan. While Trump was poised to back Jordan, he was angry that Texas Rep. Troy Nehls broke the news before he was ready, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity .
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Trump’s last-minute interventions helped McCarthy win the presidency after 15 rounds of voting in January, but the holdouts in that case were Trump allies. This time, most of the more radical conservatives were already lining up behind Jordan.
Instead, Jordan is courting moderate Republicans, trying to convince them that they will be heard if he is elected, despite his reputation as a hard-liner. Trump’s support further ties Jordan to the former president, which could make it harder for moderate members to support him.
For his part, Jordan said the endorsement would help him win the gavel.
“He is the leader of our party and I believe he will be the next president,” Jordan told reporters Friday at the Capitol.
Beyond the immediate dynamic at the Capitol, Trump’s involvement in the presidential race speaks to his outsized role within the party. More than three months before the first votes of the 2024 campaign, Republicans are increasingly open to designating Trump as the party’s leader. This is despite the fact that he faces four separate criminal indictments.
And as he once again appears in a strong position to win the Republican Party nomination, Trump’s penchant for attention is on display.
After creating a media storm Monday when he appeared at his civil fraud trial in New York, Trump quickly jumped on presidential news that threatened to distract from his leadership. After several of his closest allies raised the fanciful idea that Trump himself could potentially serve as president – perhaps in an acting capacity – Trump fanned and flirted with the idea of intervening to save the leaderless caucus of the chaos he helped fuel.
“A lot of people have called me about the loudspeaker. All I can say is we will do whatever is best for the country and for the Republican Party,” Trump told reporters at the courthouse on Wednesday.
He later told Fox News Digital that he would be willing to serve 30 to 90 days in the role.
Trump was soon planning a trip to the Capitol where he planned to address Republicans at a closed-door candidate forum — a trip first reported by The Messenger — that would have marked his first visit to the building since the violence in Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the building in an attempt to overturn the election he lost to President Joe Biden.
That trip is no longer planned, according to Nehls and others close to the project.
Jordan has long been one of Trump’s biggest champions on the Hill. He led investigations into prosecutors who accused the former president of criminal conduct and aided efforts to impeach Biden.
Before Jan. 6, he helped Trump strategize how Congress could help Trump overturn his loss to Biden. In return, Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — five days after the Capitol attack.
Scalise, a veteran member of the leadership who is also vying for the speaker’s gavel, has the support of a significant portion of the Republican Conference, while other GOP lawmakers are looking elsewhere or waiting to make their choices known.
Trump’s involvement in the Republican Party upheaval in the House of Representatives comes just as Republican leaders are trying to defuse the drama and calm tempers. On Friday, a planned debate on Fox News between the candidates was canceled. Republicans are also trying to avoid the spectacle of a long presidential race by finding a consensus candidate in closed-door meetings next week.
However, many are preparing for a one-day competition. The last time they all gathered in the same room — shortly after McCarthy was removed as speaker — insults were thrown and some lawmakers even thought it might turn into beatings.
The contest had been dominated by three lawmakers considered loyal to Trump: Jordan, Scalise and Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern each voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. On Saturday, Hern decided to not run for office, saying in a statement that House Republicans “must come together – and do it quickly.” It is clear to me that a three-way race will only prolong the process, creating new divisions, making it more difficult for any candidate to win the required number of votes.
This allegiance to Trump from Jordan and Scalise could prove useful to Trump if he wins. Trump’s agenda during his term was often thwarted by his own party’s congressional leaders when he clashed with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and the leader of the Senate majority at the time, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.
In the years since leaving the White House, Trump has broken with precedent and supported hundreds of like-minded candidates, hoping to fill the House and Senate with lawmakers who share his vision of America first if he becomes president again.
Trump made his ultimate goal clear earlier this week when he wrote on his Truth Social site that he would “do whatever is necessary to help the House Speaker selection process, in the short term, until until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT is made.” – A President who will help a new and very experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! »
