Former President Donald Trump is in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, according to two people familiar with the talks.
Some on the far right have floated the idea of Trump as a speaker candidate — perhaps on an interim basis. One of the people cautioned that if Trump goes ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk with Republican lawmakers and not to pitch himself for the role.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
Trump is being encouraged to run by a small group of far-right allies including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. McCarthy, of California, lost his position this week when eight Republicans supported a motion introduced by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to remove him from the speakership.
Gaetz and Greene are both Trump allies, though Greene voted against the motion to remove McCarthy.
Trump, the early front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, wrote in a social media post that he “will do whatever is necessary to help with the Speaker of the House selection process, short term, until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made – A Speaker who will help a new, but highly experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The trip would be Trump’s first to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters violently stormed the building in a bid to halt the peaceful transition of power from him to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.
Politico first reported Trump’s consideration of a visit.
Story by Farnoush Amiri and Jill Colvin, The Associated Press
