Trump furious at GOP lawmaker for ruining plan to inject reality TV drama into Speaker race: report
Donald Trump is furious that a Republican congressman blew up his plans to add reality TV-style drama to the House speaker race, according to a report.
The former president had been sketching out an idea to make a high-profile visit to Washington, D.C., and briefly stand as a candidate for the job before dramatically throwing his support behind Rep. Jim Jordan.
He discussed the plan Wednesday evening in calls to Republicans he thought he had sworn to secrecy, four sources told The Messenger.
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"Keep this quiet," Trump told the lawmakers.
But Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) apparently didn't follow the instruction and let the cat out of the bag Wednesday at 9:32 p.m. on X, saying he had just spoken to Trump and said he planned to endorse Jordan.
“Nehls just totally f---ed this up,” said one Trump adviser.
Trump publicly endorsed Jordan less than three hours later, and a Republican lawmaker said the former president was "p--sed" at Nehls because he had upended his plan and drained his visit of the drama and attention he hoped would surround his return to the Capitol for the first time since Jan. 6.
“Nehls has all the patience of a dog waiting to be let out of a car,” the Republican lawmaker said.
It's not clear if Trump will go to Washington at all now, although he can change his mind at the last minute and fly there on his personal aircraft.
“Trump is pretty annoyed at Nehls,” said a Trump adviser. “The reality is the worst case scenario for Trump was to go to Washington and become speaker. Then he would have to do the job, defend a civil fraud case, four criminal cases and run for president in the primary and general election. There was no time.”