GOP bid to elect Trump House speaker ‘gaining momentum,’ lawmakers say

Several Republican members of Congress are backing an effort to elect former President Donald Trump speaker of the House next week, according to a Republican lawmaker. 

“I’ve been contacted by multiple Members of Congress willing to support and offer nomination speeches for Donald J. Trump to be Speaker of the House,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) tweeted on Thursday. 

“Next week is going to be HUGE,” he teased.

Nehls, 55, was one of the first members of the House to publicly voice his support for a Trump speakership, vowing to nominate the 77-year-old former president to the post just hours after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the speaker’s chair in a historic vote Tuesday. 

Nehls was not among the eight Republicans who voted to strip McCarthy of his speakership. 

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) – neither of whom voted to remove McCarthy either – have also been outspoken supporters of giving the gavel to Trump. 

“Trump for Speaker is gaining momentum!,” Steube tweeted Thursday. 

“We need somebody to unite our conference. And I honestly believe that [Trump] the only person that can do that,” Steube explained during an appearance on Fox News.

“He is the America First agenda. We need the America First agenda to be displayed in the House of Representatives.”

Greene has called Trump her “only” choice for speaker and believes the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner would accept the role if elected.  

“I think if we tap President Trump for Speaker, he would take the job,” Greene tweeted, calling him “a stark contrast to the current regime.”

“If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!!” she said in a separate tweet.

“It would be the House of MAGA!!!”

While nominees for House speaker do not have to be sitting members of Congress, House GOP rules currently bar 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 Republican Conference Rules of the 118th Congress state. 

Trump is facing a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases — and up to 712 years and six months behind bars if convicted of all of them.

House members have been advised that a vote for a new speaker will not take place until next week. 

Trump received one vote for the speakership back in January on the seventh, eighth and 11th ballots, despite only being nominated on the 11th by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who engineered the removal of McCarthy.