Republican lawmaker dismisses possibility Trump could be House speaker

A Republican lawmaker has dismissed the possibility that Donald Trump could replace Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Rep Ken Buck, who voted last week to oust Mr McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives, insisted the former president doesn’t stand a chance of taking the gavel after far-right Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz floated the idea he could be appointed to the role.

When asked on ABC’s “This Week” about some Republicans calling for Mr Trump to become the next speaker, Mr Buck said “that’s not going to happen”.

“It shouldn’t happen, and we have a lot of talent inside the House,” he said.

“We’ll settle this inside the House Republican conference, and we will elect someone who’ll have the unity and the backing of the full conference.”

However, Mr Buck fell short of endorsing a candidate for the position, saying he will not do so until Republicans reach an agreement on government spending.

“I think we lock the doors, and we have very limited bathroom breaks and food breaks and make sure we get the job done,” Mr Buck said.

It comes as House members are scrambling to find a new speaker, with no obvious replacement for Mr McCarthy.

Last week, the former president claimed that “a lot of people” had asked him about becoming speaker, as he said he would do “whatever is best” for the Republican party.

Mr Trump said he would consider accepting the speakership temporarily if the party was deadlocked on selecting a new speaker.

The former president went on to endorse Rep Jim Jordan for the post.

While the House speaker does not need to be a member of Congress, it remains unlikely that Mr Trump would serve in such a role due to his indictments and ongoing legal cases.

Rule 26(a) of the House Republican Conference rules states: “A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.”

The former president, who is currently the front-runner in the Republican primary, faces a number of criminal indictments, at both the federal level and in state cases in New York and Georgia.

Mr McCarthy was stripped of his title as the highest-ranking member of the Republican party in the US government after eight of his own party joined with 208 Democrats in a parliamentary manoeuvre that hadn’t been tried in over a century, known as a motion to vacate the chair.

It came after Mr McCarthy helped to avert a government shutdown by approving stopgap legislation to keep the government running for the next 45 days.

But far-right Republicans claimed he broke his word to them after he sided with Democrats to prevent the shutdown.

The former speaker said he does not regret supporting the stopgap funding bill.

“Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but it is necessary ... I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance ... I do not regret negotiating for government is designed to find compromise, I don’t regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems, not create them,” he said last Tuesday after he was ousted.

“So I may have lost the vote today, but as I walk out of this chamber, I feel fortunate to have served the American people”.