Donald Trump issued a lukewarm endorsement of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for speaker of the House on Twitter Saturday, but with slightly less enthusiasm than he expressed for billionaire Mark Cuban the day before.
“Paul Ryan is far from my first choice, but a very nice guy,” the presidential candidate said in a tweet. “The Republicans should go for tough and (very) smart this time – no games!”
Earlier in the week, Trump told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he would “be okay” with Ryan as speaker. However, he added, “It may not be him. I mean, they have a couple of people in there, I’m not going to mention names. But people I know that are really tough and really smart. And right now, that’s what we need because the Republicans never win … no matter what we have, there’s never, ever a victory. So we need a toughness and we just don’t have that there right now.”
On Friday evening, Trump responded to a tweet from Cuban that said, “Maybe I’ll run for Speaker of the House. Can I convince 200+ politicians to write me in? Constitution says I can try.” Trump said unequivocally, “Mark–They could use you.”
Mark–They could use you. https://t.co/tOJ3ecOjNZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2015
Technically, House members can elect any citizen to lead their chamber. Another prominent name that has been floated that of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who served as speaker from 1995-1999. The current declared candidates for the job are Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
