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Trump may visit the Capitol as Republicans picking a speaker

Former President Donald Trump is in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, according to two people familiar with the talks. Trump, the early front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, wrote in a social media post that he “will do whatever is necessary to help with the Speaker of the House selection process, short term, until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made – A Speaker who will help a new, but highly experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Associated Press has the story:

Trump may visit the Capitol as Republicans picking a speaker

Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)

Former President Donald Trump is in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, according to two people familiar with the talks.

FILE – Former President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters as he leaves the courtroom during a lunch break in his civil business fraud trial, Oct. 4, 2023, in New York. Trump’s lawyers have asked a judge to postpone his Florida classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election. The lawyers say they have not received all the records they need to prepare Trump’s defense. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Some on the far right have floated the idea of Trump as a speaker candidate — perhaps on an interim basis. One of the people cautioned that if Trump goes ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk with Republican lawmakers and not to pitch himself for the role.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

FILE – The speaker’s dais is seen in the House of Representatives of the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. After House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job by a contingent of hard-right conservatives this week, House GOP leaders are now grappling to find a new speaker. With no speaker of the House, a constitutional officer second in line to the presidency, the Congress cannot fully function — to pass laws, fund the government and otherwise serve as the branch of government closest to the people — during a time of simmering uncertainty at home and abroad. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Trump is being encouraged to run by a small group of far-right allies including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. McCarthy, of California, lost his position this week when eight Republicans supported a motion introduced by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to remove him from the speakership.

Gaetz and Greene are both Trump allies, though Greene voted against the motion to remove McCarthy.

FILE – Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as Speaker of the House, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington. McCarthy spent years tirelessly raising mountains of Republican campaign cash as he worked his way toward becoming Speaker of the House. Now that he’s been ousted from the post, some in McCarthy’s party are wondering if all that fundraising will evaporate. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Trump, the early front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, wrote in a social media post that he “will do whatever is necessary to help with the Speaker of the House selection process, short term, until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made – A Speaker who will help a new, but highly experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he leaves the courtroom during a lunch break in his civil business fraud trial, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The trip would be Trump’s first to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters violently stormed the building in a bid to halt the peaceful transition of power from him to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.

Politico first reported Trump’s consideration of a visit.

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