Meadows, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, said that if Republicans regain their majority in the House in 2022, they should install the former President as speaker in January 2023.
Meadows may be Trump’s most prominent ally to float the idea, but he’s not the first.
SOURCE: “Why not, instead of just waiting for 2024, and I hope you run in 2024, but why not run in 2022 for the US Congress, a House seat in Florida, win big, takes us to a dramatic victory, taking the 50-seat House, and then you become the presenter of the House?”
TRUMPET: “You know, it’s very exciting. That’s exciting. And people have said, run for the Senate, OK, run for the Senate, but you know what? Your idea could be better. It’s very interesting.”
In a later interview with Fox News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to offer a more credible opinion.
(McCarthy’s office later told CNN he misspelled it, meaning Trump wanted him to be the speaker.)
Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, Trump could be the speaker in the House. There is no requirement that the speaker be a member of Congress; he or she simply has to get a majority of the House members to back their bid for the speaker position.
Just to be clear: It will still be a long shot for Trump to end up as speaker. There’s a reason the House has never chosen someone outside of its own ranks as its leader.
Plus, it’s pretty clear Trump has plans to run for president in 2024 – and it’s hard to see how that caused his pause as speaker of the House.
Of course, since we’re talking about Trump here, dismissing any idea – no matter how extravagant and eccentric – is a fool’s chore.
Point: There’s enough displeasure with McCarthy in the Trump wing of the party that this idea will keep popping up. Whether the former President actually pursued it is another question.
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