Trump questions GOP infighting ahead of vote to oust McCarthy

Former President Trump expressed frustration Tuesday over infighting among Republicans just minutes before lawmakers in the House were set to vote on a motion from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to advance an effort to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). 

“Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why aren’t they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The post came during a break in a New York fraud trial involving Trump’s business empire, which the former president is attending in Manhattan.

The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on the effort to oust McCarthy as Speaker after Gaetz set the process in motion Monday night. The Florida Republican told reporters he had spoken to Trump but would not divulge details of their conversation.

Trump had played a role in McCarthy securing the Speakership in January after a historic 15 rounds of votes just after the start of the new Congress.

Given the narrow GOP majority in the House, a handful of Republican votes opposing McCarthy now could put his fate in Democratic hands, but Democrats have indicated they do not intend to vote to back McCarthy and help him retain the gavel.

Trump had not previously weighed in on the fight over whether McCarthy should remain Speaker. The former president has maintained a good relationship with McCarthy since leaving the White House in 2021. McCarthy traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida shortly after Trump left office, and the two have remained in touch.

Trump in January publicly and privately urged Republicans to back McCarthy for Speaker amid divisions within the party that led to several rounds of voting before the California Republican won the gavel.

Mychael Schnell contributed.