Rep. Matt Gaetz votes for Donald Trump over Kevin McCarthy as speaker

In spite of his relatively lax campaign schedule so far, former President Donald Trump is very much an officially declared candidate for the upcoming 2024 elections. It may surprise him, however, to learn that he's also a candidate to become the next speaker of the House, as Republicans continue to flail about in the hopes of getting their razor-thin congressional majority off the ground.

As the House convened on Thursday for former Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Cali) seventh attempt to convince 20 or so of his fellow Republicans to put him over the 218-vote threshold for becoming speaker, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of McCarthy's staunchest opponents, offered the former president — and McCarthy backer — as a potential alternative.

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.