What Every House Speaker Candidate Has Said About Donald Trump

After nearly three weeks of deadlock, Republicans say they are primed to choose a new House speaker.

At a closed internal party meeting on Monday, House Republicans heard from all eight new candidates. They said a secret ballot vote could come on Tuesday morning to pick the successor to Kevin McCarthy, whose ousting sparked the leadership vacuum.

Last week, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan was removed as the party's nominee after three unsuccessful rounds of voting. Steve Scalise of Louisiana dropped out of the race on October 12, a day after his party chose him, and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania yesterday announced he was pulling out to help support Donald Trump with his presidential campaign.

Below, Newsweek has compiled what each of the GOP speaker candidates has said about Trump as they seek the senior government position.

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota

The House Majority Whip was one of the few senior GOP leaders who voted to accept the votes that clinched President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. He has not endorsed Trump in the primary, and according to Politico, the former president has told allies he does not back Emmer's bid. However, Trump disputed this narrative in a conversation with reporters in New Hampshire on Monday.

Meanwhile, Emmer has consistently posted positive messages about the former president on X, formerly Twitter. In June, he accused Democrats of overseeing a "witch hunt" against Trump.

"Democrats have always been eager to execute their political witch hunt against Donald Trump. Nothing proves it more than a sitting administration indicting him over the same thing Joe Biden has done," Emmer wrote in the June 9 post. "This is the ultimate abuse of power, and they will be held accountable."

He used similar language in March, saying that it's "a sad state of affairs when socialist DA's would rather pursue a politically motivated witch hunt against President Donald Trump than crack down on violent crime."

Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma

Hern, a businessman who owned a number of McDonald's franchises in Oklahoma, voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Trump's favor.

A key ally to the former president, he released a statement on April 4—when Trump was arraigned in New York City in connection to hush money paid by Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records—rebuffing those who claimed the legal woes would impact Trump's presidential chances in 2024.

"For those who think this will harm President Trump's chances at running for the White House in 2024, I have news for you: it won't," Hern said in the statement.

"The same people who were outraged over the possibility of Hillary Clinton's prosecution for obvious crimes are now celebrating yet another witch hunt against the former President and political opponent of the current President.

"This type of hypocrisy is disgusting, and it underscores what millions of Americans see as a blatant double standard in our justice system, causing many to lose faith in those institutions.

"This will only lead to further division in this country. Despite President Biden's hollow commitment to unity, I have yet to see him take even one action in pursuit of that goal."

Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia

Scott, who previously backed Jim Jordan for speaker, is the only other Republican candidate who did not object to the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He has posted a number of supportive posts on X about the former president in recent months, including writing in August that Trump's indictment in special counsel Jack Smith's January 6 probe was indicative of living in an "authoritarian state."

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana

Johnson, who was elected to Congress in 2016, is a close ally of Trump. He has repeatedly called charges against the former president "bogus" and was one of the key figures who contested the results of the 2020 election.

Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan

Bergman is another Trump ally who has endorsed the former president for the 2024 Republican nomination. In a March statement, he condemned Trump's indictment in the hush money case, calling the case a "politically motivated witch hunt" and accusing the Manhattan district attorney of being on an "endless quest to destroy former President Donald Trump and those who support him."

"This is unacceptable and will cause irreversible damage to our Justice system," he added. "The American People deserve immediate transparency and truth from the Manhattan DA in this matter."

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida

Donalds has also endorsed Trump's 2024 White House bid. In a campaign video, he described himself as a "Trump-supporting, liberty-loving, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment Black man."

He recently said that under Trump, "life was better."

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas

Sessions has also made a number of supportive statements about the former president. He has likened judicial action against him to a "political vendetta" and a "phony investigation."

Last month, he told Fox News that Trump provided a success model other politicians could follow

Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama

Trump endorsed Palmer when the representative was reelected last year. The relationship appears to be symbiotic; Palmer voted to overturn the 2020 election and signed on to an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states.