Rep. Matt Gaetz voted for Donald Trump over Kevin McCarthy for speaker

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Despite his relatively relaxed campaign schedule so far, former President Donald Trump is an officially declared candidate for the upcoming 2024 election. It may surprise him, however, to learn that he is also a candidate to be the next speaker of the House, as Republicans continue to clamor for the hope of getting their slim congressional majority off the ground.

As the House met on Thursday for the seventh attempt by former Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Cali) to convince 20 or so of his fellow Republicans to put him over the 218-vote threshold for speakership, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of McCarthy’s staunchest opponents, offered the former president and McCarthy supporter as a potential alternative.

Gaetz’s vote for Trump marked the only change from the lockstep uniformity put in place by the anti-McCarthy bloc in previous votes. The other 19 members of the defecting faction call voted for incoming Rep. Elect Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) along with another Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz who just voted “present.”

Gaetz, long one of the former President’s most ardent congressional supporters, did not explain why he switched his choice from the Donalds to Trump on this latest ballot, nor did he predict whether he would continue to do so in next votes.

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