Trump Declines To Keep Endorsing McCarthy For Speaker After Voting Chaos, Report Says

Topline

Former President Donald Trump declined to say whether he is still backing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) House speaker bid in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, after McCarthy failed to win a series of speakerhip votes, throwing yet more uncertainty into a chaotic process that has fractured the Republican Party.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks as he’s joined by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the Rose … [+] Garden of the White House on January 4, 2019 in Washington. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Trump reportedly claimed he’s been taking calls all day asking for support and said “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he’ll keep backing McCarthy.

The Republican-majority House remains in limbo after no one secured enough votes in three rounds of voting Tuesday to win the speakership, leaving the body unable to adopt rules and keeping incoming members from being sworn in.

McCarthy—who has served as the top House Republican since 2019—has vowed to appear on as many ballots as it takes to be elected speaker.

His opposition is a group of hard-right Republicans that are among Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, who have demanded significant concessions from McCarthy in exchange for votes, such as the ability to oust the Speaker in the middle of a term.

Trump told Breitbart News last month he believes McCarthy “deserves the shot” and admonished Republicans opposing McCarthy’s speaker bid for “playing a very dangerous game.”

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes seeking further clarity on his position.

Surprising Fact

Trump made no mention of the votes throughout the day on his social media platform, Truth Social, and his campaign did not send out any news releases Tuesday.

Key Background

The House adjourned Tuesday evening with no clarity on who will be elected speaker and no clear timeline for how long it might take to select one. McCarthy won more than 200 votes on each of the ballots but fell short of the 218 needed to capture the speakership, and momentum does not seem to be on his side. Nineteen Republicans opposed McCarthy on the first two ballots, splitting votes between several other candidates on the former and coalescing behind Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on the latter—even though Jordan backs McCarthy and claims he does not want to be speaker. Support for Jordan grew to 20 Republicans on the third ballot, after Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) switched his vote, with Donalds later tweeting that “the reality is … McCarthy doesn’t have the votes” and “now is the time for our conference to debate and come to a consensus.” All 212 Democrats voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). This is the first time since 1923 there has been a protracted vote for speaker and only the second time it has happened since before the start of the Civil War.

Contra

McCarthy was the first known Republican congressional leader to meet with Trump after the January 6 attack on the Capitol—a meeting that many political observers credit with reviving Trump’s political standing. McCarthy also worked for years during the Trump Administration to curry his favor, leading Trump to privately call McCarthy “my Kevin.”

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