If you've watched the chaos of House Republicans booting their chosen speaker with no plan for what would come afterward, you might be at a loss as to how the party's turmoil could get worse. Oh ye of little faith—it can always get worse. Based on multiple sources, NBC News now reports that Donald Trump is "considering a visit to the U.S. Capitol early next week."
The former president, who has not set foot on Capitol grounds since prior to the Jan. 6 riot, is considering making an appearance here in an effort to “unify the party,” according to one Republican lawmaker who discussed the possibility with a member of Trump’s inner circle this morning.
It's not clear which lawmakers think that what the House speaker's race really needs is to have Donald Trump in the middle of it, but while Trump is said to be "considering" the trip, there are a lot of reasons to think it's not going to happen. Trump is a bit busy of late with his multiple criminal indictments, and spent the first half of this week in a courthouse where he mugged for the cameras and ratcheted up his threatening rhetoric toward the judge hearing his case, as well as his clerk. There are limits on his time.
It's also not clear what would be in it for Trump. The current candidates for the speakership are crime enabler Rep. Jim Jordan and white nationalist Rep. Steve Scalise; since Trump has proven fond of both of those things, it's not clear which candidate he would announce he was "unifying" the party around. If there's no money involved, why would he even bother?
There's also talk of making Trump himself the speaker, which would technically be against House Republican rules because he's been indicted for crimes. But if you think that would be a hindrance to the Trump fetishists that excused and assisted an actual coup attempt, then you haven't been paying attention.
"If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!! It would be the House of MAGA!!!" tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Yeah. Yeah, that's just what America needs. But unfortunately for Greene, the odds that Trump would take the job are effectively zero. Again, he's very busy with his indictments. He's very busy campaigning for a return to the presidency. He was never one who liked putting in a lot of work, and being speaker of the House is a lot of work.
And, perhaps most importantly, being speaker of the House means having at least a passable understanding of a whole mess of parliamentary points of order and if you think Donald Freaking Trump is going to have the patience to learn when to bang the little gavel and when not to, even with some congressional manservant following him around whispering the cues into his ear, then dream on.
So that won't happen. But it's also not very likely that Trump will show up to "unify" Republicans, a doomed effort that would only make him look foolish for making the attempt. Probably. We can hope.
Sign the petition: Trump attempted a coup on January 6. He is a clear & present danger to democracy
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