Former President Donald Trump is considering visiting House Republicans on the Hill amid reports he’s been fielding calls about possibly becoming the next House speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, reported the Messenger.
Trump, 77, on Wednesday outside the Manhattan courtroom where his civil fraud trial is ongoing, told reporters, “A lot of people have been calling me about speaker. All I can say is we’ll do whatever is best for the country and the Republican Party.”
“My total focus is on being president,” he added, noting that there are many “great people” in the GOP who could handle the job.
“Speaker Trump would break liberal brains,” a source told the Messenger.
Another Republican insider told the news outlet that Trump “has been more than encouraged by some Republicans.
“The ‘some’ is a big number," said a second person within the Republican Party familiar with Trump's thinking. "I just don’t know if he’s going to do it. Sometimes he believes he should go. Other times he’s telling people it might be a bad idea."
Newsmax reached out to Trump’s campaign, but has not received a response.
The House speaker does not have to be a House member.
McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown — a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.
Next steps are highly uncertain, with no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.