Some far-right Republican members of the House say they want Donald Trump to become the next speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s stunning ouster on Tuesday threw the body into chaos.
GOP Reps. Troy Nehls (Tex.), Greg Steube (Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (Ga.) all tweeted in support of Trump becoming speaker, while Jim Jordan (Ohio) told Fox News that if Trump wants to be speaker “that’s fine, too.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed Trump “might be open” to the idea.
There is no rule saying the speaker must be a member of the House, although every speaker so far has been.
But there’s a big problem with the GOP plan to make Trump the first non-member to wield the gavel: Their own rules.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Il.) gave his Republican colleagues a reminder of Rule 26, which was adopted in January and states that any GOP leader indicted of a felony with a potential prison sentence of 2 years or more needs to step aside:
Trump has been indicted on 91 felony charges, many of which carry potential sentences far above 2 years.
By late Wednesday, “Rule 26” was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
That’s not the only kink in the plan.
House speaker is a labor-intensive job. Trump, on the other hand, is better known for spending as much time as he can playing golf. During his four-year presidency, Trump spent nearly 300 days on the golf course, as the former president’s critics noted on X: