A conservative House member who had promised to nominate former President Donald Trump to be the chamber’s new speaker says that the ex-president will endorse Rep. Jim Jordan for the post.
Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas has pushed Mr. Trump for when the House returns to the Capitol next week, but said he now backs Mr. Jordan.
“Just had a great conversation with President Trump about the Speaker’s race,” Mr. Nehls said on the social-media site X. “He is endorsing Jim Jordan, and I believe Congress should listen to the leader of our party. I fully support Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House.”
Mr. Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and founder of the House Freedom Caucus, has received a slew of endorsements from lawmakers since publicly confirming his bid to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California as speaker.
Mr. Nehls’ announcement comes after the former president had floated earlier in the day the idea of being speaker for a short stint.
“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer term because I am running for president.”
“I’m not doing it because I want to,” Mr. Trump said. “I will do it if necessary, should they not be able to make their decision.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Jordan had spoken with Mr. Trump about his candidacy but was coy about the former president’s response.
“I don’t want to say anything, but I had a great conversation with the president,” the Ohio Republican told NBC News.
Since Mr. McCarthy lost the gavel, the House has been in recess following an abrupt dismissal ordered by Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has remained firm in her stance that she hopes to see Mr. Trump with the gavel. Ms. Greene said on X that she intended to nominate the former president for the speaker’s race during the upcoming GOP conference meeting next week.
“We only have one choice for Speaker: President Donald J. Trump. His policies stopped the globalists and communists more than anyone else. He is the leader of the Republican Party and the only person we can trust to Save America,” said Ms. Greene, who did not help oust Mr. McCarthy.
Mr. Trump is expected to visit Capitol Hill next week for the House speaker election.
The Washington Times has reached out for comment from Ms. Greene on whether Mr. Nehls’ announcement of Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Jordan has swayed her.
Mr. Nehls had celebrated the possibility of a “Speaker Trump,” saying on social media that “next week is going to be HUGE.”
But not everyone in the House Republican Conference had celebrated.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky reminded his colleagues that Mr. Trump wasn’t always a budget hawk and backed the more than $2 trillion emergency COVID-19 relief in the CARES Act of 2020.
“He supported [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s attempt to pass it by ‘unanimous consent,’ without a quorum present. This disqualifies him from being Speaker,” Mr. Massie said on X.
Mr. Jordan is set to face off against House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a popular figure in House leadership who has also earned numerous endorsements from lawmakers. Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma has also been floating a bid for the gavel, but has not publicly announced a formal candidacy.
Any lawmaker hoping to win the speaker’s gavel will need Mr. Trump’s support.
The frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential race has demonstrated outsized influence over the House Republican Conference, whether cheering for a government shutdown or prodding lawmakers to open an impeachment investigation of President Biden.
Republicans and Mr. Trump could theoretically have elevated him since House rules don’t require the speaker to be a member of Congress.
He would have represented someone most House Republicans can rally behind after eight Republican rebels joined all House Democrats on Tuesday to eject Mr. McCarthy from the speaker’s podium.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the Republican rebellion on Tuesday, actually nominated Mr. Trump for speaker in January when he was blocking Mr. McCarthy from taking the gavel.
On Thursday, he posted a video on social media of his nomination speech from January: “For all of the vitriol we hear from the media and from the left, there were great moments of bipartisanship under the Trump presidency.”
But a Republican conference rule would have posed a problem.
According to Rule 26 of the Republican conference for the 118th Congress, a member of leadership who has been indicted on a felony charge must step aside.
Mr. Trump has been hit with four indictments with more than 90 criminal charges. The rule stipulates that if a member of leadership resigns and is acquitted, that person can resume the position. House Republicans also could have changed the conference rules.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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