Trump called up an anti-McCarthy GOP holdout — but failed to sway him: report

According to a new report from Maggie Haberman and Michael C. Bender of the New York Times, former President Donald Trump held a call with GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania -- who is blocking McCarthy's bid to become House Speaker -- after McCarthy failed to garner enough votes on Tuesday.

Trump's attempts to change Perry's mind were unsuccessful, given the fact that he voted against McCarthy three more times the following day.

"Mr. McCarthy’s inability to corral enough votes this week has underscored the limits of Mr. Trump’s political potency inside a party that has not controlled the Senate since 2018, lost the White House in 2020 and failed, so far, to identify the next leader of their narrow majority in the House," The Post's report stated, adding that even if McCarthy eventually wins the Speakership, it shows that Trump is struggling "in his role as his party’s kingmaker," especially in light of the fact that his handpicked midterm candidates failed to usher in then much-anticipated "red wave" in November, coupled with his 2024 presidential run announcement that "underwhelmed."

"Now, Mr. Trump’s sway over many of his own loyalists in the House has fizzled in the most public of ways and on the most public of stages — a reminder that the insurgency in Congress isn’t so much a creature of his creation but a force that predated him and helped fuel his political rise," Haberman and Bender write.

Read the full report over at The Washington Post.