Inside Trump's earlier secret bid for House speaker as McCarthy nomination drama unfolded
As Republicans attempt to once again elect a speaker of the House, Donald Trump is putting himself right in the middle of the process -- endorsing Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and suggesting he'd be open to taking the job himself on a temporary basis.
In reporting for my upcoming book, "Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party," I learned that Trump had secretly plotted to be elected speaker back in January, when he was publicly supporting Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was struggling to get the votes he needed.
The idea of Donald Trump serving as speaker was first proposed on the day he left the White House -- Jan. 20, 2021 -- by a pro-Trump activist named Rogan O'Handley, who went by the name "@DC_Draino" on social media. The idea was soon aggressively pushed by Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist in the White House. At first Trump had no interest in the job, but that all changed as he watched McCarthy fail in vote after vote on the House floor in early January of this year.
What follows is an exclusive excerpt from "Tired of Winning,' which will be published on Nov. 14.
The prime-time drama surrounding the seemingly endless voting for House speaker in January caught the attention of the former president, who was soaking up every minute of coverage from his perch in Mar‑a‑Lago. The must-see television spectacle briefly revived an idea Trump had dismissed long ago: that he could become speaker of the House, the only congressional leadership post you can be elected to even if you are not a member of Congress.
"He saw the power of television," a close Trump adviser told me. "[He saw] how galvanizing it was, how mesmerizing it was -- everybody was watching it, right? That's when Trump realizes it's the biggest reality show in America. He could sit up there like The Celebrity Apprentice. It'd be 'The Apprentice' with him with a big-ass gavel."
Although the idea of Trump as speaker of the House had been kicking around for months, Trump had previously expressed no interest in it.
He considered the role to be beneath him. Why would he want to leave Palm Beach to spend his days in Congress? The only time anybody paid attention to what was going on in the House, he figured, was during the State of the Union address -- and even then, all eyes are on the president, not the speaker. "It never got any traction," a Trump adviser said of the idea. "He had literally no interest."
But with the nation's attention focused on the McCarthy drama on the House floor, Trump began to have second thoughts. And when, on the seventh ballot, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz stood up and announced his vote for speaker -- "Donald John Trump" -- the former president was mildly amused. Until, that is, he saw the final vote tally being broadcast on all the news networks:
- 212 votes for Hakeem Jeffries
- 201 votes for Kevin McCarthy
- 19 votes for Byron Donalds
- 1 vote for Donald Trump
Gaetz called Trump after the balloting concluded, congratulating him on becoming the first former president since John Quincy Adams to receive a vote for speaker. But Trump wasn't pleased -- he was embarrassed. When the House clerk read off the vote totals at the end of the round -- "the Honorable Donald J. Trump of Florida has received one" -- laughter could be heard in the House chamber. Democratic lawmakers and progressive commentators were mercilessly mocking his lackluster support.
The ridicule only grew louder when Gaetz pulled the same stunt in the next round and the result was the same. "One vote," tweeted Don Lemon, who was then a CNN anchor. "That's it. That's all #Trump got for speaker of the House. #onevote."
Gaetz eventually realized his stunt was upsetting the former president and switched his vote to GOP Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma for the next two rounds of balloting. But during that time, Trump, still stewing, told at least two people the real problem was that Gaetz had not formally nominated him for speaker. If Republicans realized he was a real candidate for speaker, Trump thought, they would have overwhelmingly voted for him.
Word of Trump's thinking quickly reached Gaetz, and the Florida Republican acted accordingly.
"For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida rise?" the House clerk asked Gaetz before the eleventh round of balloting kicked off.
"To place a name in nomination for the position of speaker of the House," he replied.
And with that, Trump was officially nominated as a candidate for speaker. One Republican close to both Gaetz and Trump later told me Gaetz ran the idea by the former president and got his approval before making the move. Another said Trump had proactively asked Gaetz to do it. Either way, the former president's name was formally placed in contention -- with Trump's blessing.
With that all sorted out, Gaetz had a speech to give. "My friends, when Donald Trump was president, taxes were cut, regulations were slashed, energy was abundant, wages were rising, capital was returning from overseas to fund the dreams and ambitions of our fellow Americans, and the economy was roaring," Gaetz began. As he spoke, the murmuring and heckling -- mostly from Democrats -- grew so loud the clerk had to bring down her gavel and demand the House be in order.
But Gaetz kept going: "I nominate President Trump because we must make our country great again. And he can start by making the House of Representatives great again."
When Gaetz finished his speech, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was the only person in the entire chamber to applaud.
The result was exactly the same. Donald Trump received just one vote -- from Matt Gaetz -- for speaker of the House. And once again, the cable networks rubbed it in, plastering a measly "1" next to Trump's name as commentators mocked the former president's pathetic vote total.
That was the final straw. "Once CNN and MSNBC started mocking him, that he had the lowest vote count in history," a Trump confidant -- who was in touch with the former president throughout the process -- told me, "all of a sudden, he was like, 'Get me out of there!' "
--Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent, is the author of two previous books on Donald Trump, "Betrayal" and "Front Row at the Trump Show."
