Former President Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the embattled chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and longtime Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

Congressman Jim Jordan was already a STAR long before he made his highly successful trip to Washington, DC, where he represented Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, Trump wrote on his Truth Social site in the early hours of Friday. He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, and has my complete and total approval!

The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said Thursday evening that Trump had decided to support Jordan’s bid and after Trump said he would be open to serving as interim leader himself if Republicans could not settle on a successor after McCarthy’s stunning impeachment .

Trump, the Republican Party’s current presidential frontrunner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the Republican Party. House Republicans are deeply divided, and some have asked him to make them a seemingly fanciful suggestion that he also promoted after stoking the divisions that ousted McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) as speaker.

Trump had told people in recent days that he favored Jordan for the post, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking who were granted anonymity to discuss it. But it was unclear whether he planned to announce it before Nehls’ tweet.

I just had a great conversation with President Trump about the Speakers race. He supports Jim Jordan, and I believe Congress should listen to the leader of our party, Nehls wrote late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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In an interview later with the Associated Press, Nehls, who had encouraged Trump to run for the post, said the ex-president wanted Jordan instead.

After thinking about it and this and that…he said he’s really in favor of getting behind Jim Jordan,” Nehls said. He believes Jim Jordan is right for the job.”

Jordan is one of two leading candidates maneuvering with Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana to become speaker. Both are trying to secure the 218 votes needed to win the job and need support from both far-right and moderate factions of the party. It’s unclear whether Trump’s support will force Scalise, the current Republican majority leader, out of the race, or whether either could reach the threshold.

Nehls even said that if no current candidate manages to gain the support needed to win, he would turn to Trump again. Our conference is divided. Our country is broken. I don’t know who can get to 218, he said in the interview.

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Trump had been in talks earlier in the day to visit Capitol Hill next week, ahead of a vote that could take place as soon as Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Trump confirmed the trip to Fox News Digital and said he would travel to meet with Republicans on Tuesday.

It would be Trump’s first trip to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters attacked the building in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021. Trump has been charged in both Washington and Georgia over his efforts to overthrow the Capitol. the outcome of the election, which he lost to President Biden.

However, Nehls said it was now unlikely Trump would make the trip following his support for Jordan.

Jordan is one of Trump’s biggest champions on the Hill and is leading the investigation into prosecutors who charged the former president. He was also part of a group of Republicans who worked with Trump to overturn his defeat before January 6.

Scalise has also worked closely with Trump over the years.

One of the people familiar with the planning had warned earlier Thursday that if Trump went ahead with the Washington visit, he would be there to talk to Republican lawmakers and not pitch himself for the role.

Still, Trump continued to fuel speculation, telling Fox News Digital on Thursday that he would accept a short-term role as speaker for anywhere between 30 and 90 days if another candidate doesn’t have the votes to win.

I was asked to speak as a unifying factor because I have so many friends in Congress, he told the newspaper. If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking over as chairman until they find someone for the longer term, as I am running for president.

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In a social media post earlier today, he added that he will do whatever is necessary in the short term to assist in the Speaker of the House selection process until the final selection of a GRAND REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made. new, but very experienced president, I, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The Republican conference is filled with members who generally support Trump, but whether they would support him as speaker remains to be seen. The role is a demanding position that essentially runs the Capitol and deals with hundreds of lawmakers, and requires attention to the arcane details of legislation that Trump showed little interest in even when he was president.

While he dominates his Republican presidential rivals, Trump is also still traveling to early primaries to campaign and spending much of his time on the four criminal charges and several civil cases he faces.

While there is no requirement that anyone be elected to the House to serve as speaker, each of the 55 speakers the House has chosen is a member of the chamber. From time to time, lawmakers have given their votes to people outside Congress, often in protest of the candidates running for office.

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Trump helped McCarthy win the speakership in January after 15 rounds of voting. But he urged Republicans to impeach Biden and reject the deals McCarthy negotiated. Last month, he urged the right flank to support a government shutdown if Republicans didn’t get major budget cuts, declaring on social media that the GOP lost a lot on the debt ceiling, gained NOTHING and now is afraid that they will be blamed for the budget. To block. Wrong!!! Whoever is president gets the blame, in this case Crooked (as Hell!) Joe Biden!

McCarthy ultimately decided to keep the government open for 45 days without the cuts demanded by far-right conservatives. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and longtime Trump ally, cited that decision as a reason to impeach the speaker.

Among those who pushed Trump for speaker was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Trump ally who did not vote to impeach McCarthy. She posted to X that she believed he would take the job.

Nehls, the Texas Republican who was among the first to promote Trump for the job, said before his Thursday night call with Trump that he had been contacted by several members of Congress willing to support Donald J. Trump and deliver nomination speeches as Speaker of the House.

Next week, he wrote on X, will be BIG.