Gaetz votes for Trump for Speaker on 7th ballot

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) voted for former President Trump for Speaker of the House on Thursday, as the chamber held its seventh vote in three days in an attempt to elect a Speaker.

Gaetz, who has been a staunch opponent of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid for Speaker, broke with his fellow anti-McCarthy members to vote for Trump on the seventh ballot. The remaining 19 representatives voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).

Gaetz later tweeted out a photo illustration of Trump brandishing the Speaker’s gavel.

Although no movement occurred in the seventh vote — as the same 20 far-right members continued to split with the rest of the Republican Party — several members appeared to be making progress in negotiations with McCarthy overnight. Gaetz, however, seemed to dig in on his anti-McCarthy position.

The move comes after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a member of the anti-McCarthy group, suggested on Wednesday night that she might nominate Trump for the position. The comment earned Boebert a barbed response from Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“Is this a game show? Like we’re gonna pick Jim Jordan one day, Trump the other day?” Hannity asked Boebert, referring to the Ohio Republican who was nominated for Speaker on Tuesday as a McCarthy alternative.

Despite the apparent support from Gaetz and Boebert, Trump himself has backed McCarthy’s bid for Speaker and urged Republican lawmakers to “get this thing over with.”

“I think it is a dangerous game, and, frankly, if they are not happy with him, they can do something about it at a later date,” Trump told Fox News Digital of the anti-McCarthy group.