As you well know, the country is pretty abuzz with talk of former President Donald Trump possibly running for the White House again in 2024. While no announcement on that note has been made from Trump so far, comments have suggested the possibility.
But what if there was a way to get him into that office before Biden’s term is up in another three years?
How, you might ask?
Well, according to several sources, the short version is that Trump could become the speaker of the House in 2022. And as we all know, that would mean he’s not only third in line to the Oval Office, but he would also have the authority and means to impeach the current holders of that office.
The problem with that theory, some would say, is that Trump is not a member of the House of Representatives and, therefore, not eligible to be their leader. After all, every speaker to ever lead the Lower House has always been also an elected representative themselves.
But as some experts have concluded, that’s not necessarily a requirement for the position.
In 2015, NBC News even wrote an entire article on the possibility that a non-member of the House could, in fact, at least in theory, preside over it. This comes from nothing but the United States Constitution itself.
As NBC reported, the Constitution reads, “The House of Representatives shall chuse (sic) their Speaker and other Officers.” The outlet and several others point out that not a word is mentioned about the Speaker needing to actually be a member of the House.
Furthermore, according to the office of the House Historian, the speaker “has always been (but is not required to be) a House Member.”
This would mean that should the 2022 midterm elections change the House’s majority party, putting Republicans back in charge, they could then choose a new leader, regardless of their membership in the House.
Of course, some would argue that it’s not possible. David Forte, a constitutional scholar of the Cleveland State University, for example, says that while the Constitution may not say so directly, it can be taken that the founding fathers who wrote it may have just assumed that the House would always choose of their own to lead them and therefore, didn’t feel the need to specify.
He says, “It would have been unthinkable of the most populous house not to have its leader be part of the representatives who were elected by the people.”
And he may be right. But the fact remains that the Constitution is mum on the exact qualifications of such a position.
Of course, it might not make much of a difference.
As Rogan O’Handley, a conservative booster, noted earlier this year on his now-suspended Twitter account, Trump could always run for a House seat in his home state of Florida and get the same results. In that case, then the whole argument about Trump needing to be a member of the House wouldn’t matter as he would be. Then, once a Republican majority is achieved, as many on both sides of the aisle see happening next year, Pelosi will be booted. Someone from the conservative side, possibly Trump, could be given the speakership.
That person could very well, then, bring impeachment articles against our sitting president and/or his second in command, Vice President Kamala Harris, as the would-be former Speaker Pelosi did against Trump while he was in the Oval Office. Once those two are gone, assuming both the House and the Senate agree upon impeachment, the Speaker would legally have the right of succession to take over the White House.
As I mentioned before, this is all just a theory at this point. No one is saying that Trump will hope for the speakership or that he will even consider running for a House seat.
However, there is already enough talk about the possibility of getting more than a few liberal feathers riled up.
In fact, this past week, a reporter even went so far as to publicly ask Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz if he would support Trump in becoming the new House Speaker. And Gaetz said he most certainly would. In fact, he told the reporter that he had even personally spoken with Trump about the possibility.
Now, if Gaetz, a man who could lose his seat to Trump in such an instance, supports the idea, how many more do you think would stand by it, also? I’m willing to say quite a bit.
