Former President Donald Trump doesn’t want to be Speaker of the House, despite having raised the idea recently, a onetime aide says.
Jason Miller, a longtime aide and former spokesman to Trump, told Punchbowl News, "Trump has zero desire to be Speaker."
Trump said earlier this month the idea of being the Speaker without running for Congress was "so interesting." He later said, "Yeah, you know it’s very interesting," during an interview on Wayne Allyn Root's radio show. Trump also said some of his supporters believe he should run for the U.S. Senate, according to the Hill.
Trump said during a Monday interview more people want him to be the Speaker. "Well, I’ve heard the talk and its getting more and more. But it’s not something that I would’ve considered but it is certainly – there’s a lot of talk about it. I have a good relationship with Kevin (House Minority Leader McCarthy). But the election was a horrible, horrible thing for our country."
Recent polls show that most Republican voters continue to support Trump and hope he will run for president in 2024. But Trump has not committed to a run for president and is now focusing on helping Republicans who have been loyal to him win House and Senate races in the 2022 midterm elections.
Even though the Speaker has always been a member of the House, Trump actually does not have to be a member of the House to become Speaker of the House, according the American Conservative Movement. The Constitution does not require that a person be a member of the lower chamber to be the Speaker, and with a Republican majority in the House, the members could vote to make Trump, now a private citizen, the Speaker of the House.
Trump had said during his radio interview with Root that he would consider running for a House seat in 2022 in a bid to become Speaker of the House. This would allow him to launch an impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden, according to Newsweek.