Donald Trump ‘may visit Capitol to address Republicans’ as they pick new speaker

Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Donald Trump is in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker of the House of Representatives after the removal of Kevin McCarthy, according to sources.

Some on the far right have floated the idea of Mr Trump as a speaker candidate — perhaps on an interim basis – but one source said that if the former president goes ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk with Republican legislators and not to pitch himself for the role.

Mr Trump is being encouraged to run by a small group of far-right allies including Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Mr McCarthy lost his position this week when eight Republicans supported a motion introduced by Florida representative Matt Gaetz to remove him from the speakership.

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

Mr 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 trip would be his 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 January 6 2021.