Opinion: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene really, really wants Trump to be House speaker

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was a supporter of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, even calling her former colleagues in the Freedom Caucus the “burn-it-all-down” caucus. Now that McCarthy’s out, however, she’s all in for former President Donald Trump to take the gavel.

On Tuesday, after McCarthy’s ouster, Greene took to X to outline her reasons for wanting Trump to become speaker.

• He will end the war in Ukraine.

• He will secure the border.

• He will end the politically weaponized government.

• He will make America energy independent again.

• He will pass my bill to stop transgender surgeries on kids and keep men out of women’s sports.

• He will support our military and police.

Since Tuesday, she has posted on X 13 times saying basically the only choice for speaker is Donald Trump. On Thursday, she conducted a poll on X that showed 62% wanted Trump as speaker, 29.5% wanted Jim Jordan, R-Ohio — the candidate Trump has endorsed — and 8.1% wanted Steve Scalise, R-La. More than 72,000 votes were cast.

She also posted that if Trump became speaker, the House chamber would be like a Trump rally everyday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was quick to respond: “No thanks, we’re good. We’ve seen a Trump rally at the Capitol already.”

Thursday, Greene said she would be nominating Trump for speaker on Tuesday.

While it seems unlikely that Trump will become speaker — the Constitution does not require that the speaker be a member of the body — there may be more going on behind Greene’s posts on X. In August, Greene told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that she had “a lot of things to think about. Am I going to be a part of President Trump’s cabinet if he wins? Is it possible that I’ll be VP?”

Greene said she would “very, very heavily” consider being Trump’s running mate if asked, saying it would be “an honor.”

Whoever does become speaker has to rally enough support to get 218 votes, either by getting all the Republicans to support them or somehow getting support from across the aisle. It took McCarthy 15 rounds to get enough votes to become the speaker in January. It seems unlikely that someone like Jordan, the founder of the Freedom Caucus, could pull together that kind of support.

Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy