During a news conference on Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) said that he’d like to see Trump become the next Speaker of the House if Republicans win the 2022 midterms next year.
Trump frequently communicates with the Florida congressman. said that he has discussed the ideaThe former president.
Although Gaetz wouldn’t divulge the details of their conversations, he said it was his preference that Trump become the next Speaker if Republicans win the midterms in 2022 — a sentiment that Gatez has also expressed in the past, including as a fundraising mechanism.
“After the next election cycle when we take back the House of Representatives, when we send [current House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi back to the filth of San Francisco, my commitment to you is that my vote for speaker of the US House of Representatives will go to Donald J. Trump,” Gaetz told supporters during a rally in July.
Far right lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert (R.Colorado) support the idea. Although Trump has said that he isn’t thinking about becoming Speaker, he has called it an “interesting” proposition.
Each house of Congress can make its own rules regarding who will manage its affairs according to the United States Constitution. Article I specifically states that “the House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers” — but it doesn’t say that person has to be a member of the House themselves.
Interest in appointing Trump as Speaker is going up among Republicans — particularly because the primary alternative is current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is viewed unfavorably by the more extremist members of the GOP caucus.
Many Republicans want Trump to take the position, but he faces high odds of being elected to the Speakership. While the idea of appointing a non-elected person as Speaker of the House has been considered before, there has never been a Speaker who wasn’t also an elected representative in the history of the House.
For many on the right, it isn’t Trump’s political acumen or ability to legislate that makes him a desirable candidate. As Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows commented on Gaetz’s podcast last month, the former president’s appeal lies more in the fact that it would upset people, particularly those on the left.
Meadows said that he would “love to see the gavel go from Nancy Pelosi to Donald Trump” because of the reaction it would cause.
“You talk about melting down, people would go crazy,” he added.
Although Trump may be liked by members of his party, the idea that he would become Speaker is unlikely to be accepted by all Americans. Recent numbers from an Economist/YouGov pollThe results show that Trump is seen negatively by 56 percent of voters and only 39 percent view him positively.
