IMHO I believe the precedent has been - it is considered a taboo and suicidal for legislators to cross parties in such a leadership vote. McCarthy would look like a complete whore if this happened. Could it happen? We live in strange days where everything seems to be turned on its head.

I didn't consider Trump as an alternative to McCarthy. I still believe it is a long shot for it to happen. After the 11th failure to elect a Speaker of the House, it is becoming more evident the 20 patriotic insurgents don't really have an alternative to McCarthy. IMHO, the insurgents are adamant about McCarthy meeting their demands. If you think this is just a handshake agreement, it's not. It's spelled out on paper as a contractual agreement. The second purpose of the 20 insurgents is to expose the swamp in the GOP. They are certainly succeeding in doing so. Trey Gowdy just came out of the woodwork 'reeeee-ing' about the 'clown show' the 20 hold outs are causing. Many more have now exposed themselves. Matt Gaetz is an interesting and charismatic character. I believe Kevin McCarthy tried to screw over Matt Gaetz and Gaetz knows it just like Madison Cawthorn knows. IMHO, I believe Gaetz is publicly mocking McCarthy for betraying Trump when he was president. McCarthy was caught on tape undermining the president and weighing his vote for impeachment. Gaetz is throwing this in McCarthy's face by nominating Trump instead of him. It's revenge and I think there's more of a history going on here with Gaetz and back-stabbing McCarthy.

Trump's likely scenario for supporting McCarthy is for gaining political capital. Consider Trump's actions [for supporting McCarthy] in terms of Las Vegas odds. I'll explain more about this later.

Trump has most likely considered and realized there are no other 'real' GOP contenders for the Speaker of the House position. Even Matt Gaetz just admitted this. Before people jump the gun and claim there is certainly other candidate for the Speakership, you are correct. There are other candidates like Byron Donalds, Andy Bigg and Jim Jordan. However, we have seen in Trump that he seems to pick 'winners' that are sometimes even contrary to his own ideals. Why? This is due to the realization that Trump knows he is most likely not going to affect the outcome of the vote anyway. Did you notice Trump became silent after McCarthy failed to garner the votes after the second round of voting? I believe Trump reevaluated the odds, studied the rules and became more familiar with the process. After this, it appears Trump has decided to remain endorsing McCarthy for Speaker. I'll get to this in a moment, but first correctly picking the winner, despite the ideology, has 'political capital'. This is really seeing Sun Tsu tactics in action. By supporting McCarthy, Trump in the least shows McCarthy that he supported him and can even claim he helped McCarthy to win. It positions Trump to be in better standing with the inevitable candidate. Do I agree with this tactic? No. I am far more ideological and could never be in politics. Have you noticed how public Trump is in supporting McCarthy? Even Don Trump Jr. after being off the radar map for a while has suddenly and very publicly joined his father endorsing McCarthy. It sure seems like a clarion signal that obsequiously says-- "Look, we Trumps are supporting you" in the hopes of getting political capital in return. From my involvement in politics, I found it to be detestable, slimy, and upsetting. I wanted to take a shower after every caucus. Unfortunately, being an idealist in politics never seems to work. It's all about cutting deals. IMHO, Trump already knows this.

McCarthy is still by far the most likely candidate to succeed. With the trickle of defectors going to Byron Donalds, it is not nearly enough momentum after 11 rounds of voting to prevent the inevitable. Trump's pause in supporting McCarthy was to see if McCarthy was still the best contender to win. After reviewing the rules and process, Trump reaffirmed his support for McCarthy. IMHO, this is the reason why Don Trump, Jr. was activated to help reaffirm this message publicly to McCarthy. I recently learned that 218 are not needed to win the Speaker's chair, only a majority is needed. This majority has to surpass Jeffries' 212 votes he has from the demonrats though. The likely scenario is McCarthy cuts major deals with the freedom caucus to garner the necessary votes to get him elected.

IMHO I believe the precedent has been - it is considered a taboo and suicidal for legislators to cross parties in such a leadership vote. McCarthy would like a complete whore if this happened. Could it happen? We live in strange days where everything seems to be turned on its head.

I didn't consider Trump as an alternative to McCarthy. I still believe it is a long shot for it to happen. After the 11th failure to elect a Speaker of the House, it is becoming more evident the 20 patriotic insurgents don't really have an alternative to McCarthy. IMHO, the insurgents are adamant about McCarthy meeting their demands. If you think this is just a handshake agreement, it's not. It's spelled out on paper as a contractual agreement. The second purpose of the 20 insurgents is to expose the swamp in the GOP. They are certainly succeeding in doing so. Trey Gowdy just came out of the woodwork 'reeeee-ing' about the 'clown show' the 20 hold outs are causing. Many more have now exposed themselves. Matt Gaetz is an interesting and charismatic character. I believe Kevin McCarthy tried to screw over Matt Gaetz and Gaetz knows it just like Madison Cawthorn knows. IMHO, I believe Gaetz is publicly mocking McCarthy for betraying Trump when he was president. McCarthy was caught on tape undermining the president and weighing his vote for impeachment. Gaetz is throwing this in McCarthy's face by nominating Trump instead of him. It's revenge and I think there's more of a history going on here with Gaetz and back-stabbing McCarthy.

Trump's likely scenario for supporting McCarthy is for gaining political capital. Consider Trump's actions [for supporting McCarthy] in terms of Las Vegas odds. I'll explain more about this later.

Trump has most likely considered and realized there are no other 'real' GOP contenders for the Speaker of the House position. Even Matt Gaetz just admitted this. Before people jump the gun and claim there is certainly other candidate for the Speakership, you are correct. There are other candidates like Byron Donalds, Andy Bigg and Jim Jordan. However, we have seen in Trump that he seems to pick 'winners' that are sometimes even contrary to his own ideals. Why? This is due to the realization that Trump knows he is most likely not going to affect the outcome of the vote anyway. Did you notice Trump became silent after McCarthy failed to garner the votes after the second round of voting? I believe Trump reevaluated the odds, studied the rules and became more familiar with the process. After this, it appears Trump has decided to remain endorsing McCarthy for Speaker. I'll get to this in a moment, but first correctly picking the winner, despite the ideology, has 'political capital'. This is really seeing Sun Tsu tactics in action. By supporting McCarthy, Trump in the least shows McCarthy that he supported him and can even claim he helped McCarthy to win. It positions Trump to be in better standing with the inevitable candidate. Do I agree with this tactic? No. I am far more ideological and could never be in politics. Have you noticed how public Trump is in supporting McCarthy? Even Don Trump Jr. after being off the radar map for a while has suddenly and very publicly joined his father endorsing McCarthy. It sure seems like a clarion signal that obsequiously says-- "Look, we Trumps are supporting you" in the hopes of getting political capital in return. From my involvement in politics, I found it to be detestable, slimy, and upsetting. I wanted to take a shower after every caucus. Unfortunately, being an idealist in politics never seems to work. It's all about cutting deals. IMHO, Trump already knows this.

McCarthy is still by far the most likely candidate to succeed. With the trickle of defectors going to Byron Donalds, it is not nearly enough momentum after 11 rounds of voting to prevent the inevitable. Trump's pause in supporting McCarthy was to see if McCarthy was still the best contender to win. After reviewing the rules and process, Trump reaffirmed his support for McCarthy. IMHO, this is the reason why Don Trump, Jr. was activated to help reaffirm this message publicly to McCarthy. I recently learned that 218 are not needed to win the Speaker's chair, only a majority is needed. This majority has to surpass Jeffries' 212 votes he has from the demonrats though. The likely scenario is McCarthy cuts major deals with the freedom caucus to garner the necessary votes to get him elected.

IMHO I believe the precedent has been - it is considered a taboo and suicidal for legislators to cross parties in such a leadership vote. McCarthy would like a complete whore if this happened. Could it happen? We live in strange days where everything seems to be turned on its head.

I didn't consider Trump as an alternative to McCarthy. I still believe it is a long shot for it to happen. After the 11th failure to elect a Speaker of the House, it is becoming more evident the 20 patriotic insurgents don't really have an alternative to McCarthy. IMHO, the insurgents are adamant about McCarthy meeting their demands. If you think this is just a handshake agreement, it's not. It's spelled out on paper as a contractual agreement. The second purpose of the 20 insurgents is to expose the swamp in the GOP. They are certainly succeeding in doing so. Trey Gowdy just came out of the woodwork 'reeeee-ing' about the 'clown show' the 20 hold outs are causing. Many more have now exposed themselves. Matt Gaetz is an interesting and charismatic character. I believe Kevin McCarthy tried to screw over Matt Gaetz and Gaetz knows it just like Madison Cawthorn knows. IMHO, I believe Gaetz is publicly mocking McCarthy for betraying Trump when he was president. McCarthy was caught on tape undermining the president and weighing his vote for impeachment. Gaetz is throwing this in McCarthy's face by nominating Trump instead of him. It's revenge and I think there's more of a history going on here with Gaetz and back-stabbing McCarthy.

Trump's likely scenario for supporting McCarthy is for gaining political capital. Consider Trump's actions [for supporting McCarthy] in terms of Las Vegas odds. I'll explain more about this later.

Trump has most likely considered and realized there are no other 'real' GOP contenders for the Speaker of the House position. Even Matt Gaetz just admitted this. Before people jump the gun and claim there is certainly other candidate for the Speakership, you are correct. There are other candidates like Byron Donalds, Andy Bigg and Jim Jordan. However, we have seen in Trump that he seems to pick 'winners' that are sometimes even contrary to his own ideals. Why? This is due to the realization that Trump knows he is most likely not going to affect the outcome of the vote anyway. Did you notice Trump became silent after McCarthy failed to garner the votes after the second round of voting? I believe Trump reevaluated the odds, studied the rules and became more familiar with the process. After this, it appears Trump has decided to remain endorsing McCarthy for Speaker. I'll get to this in a moment, but first correctly picking the winner, despite the ideology, has 'political capital'. This is really seeing Sun Tsu tactics in action. By supporting McCarthy, Trump in the least shows McCarthy that he supported him and can even claim he helped McCarthy to win. It positions Trump to be in better standing with the inevitable candidate. Do I agree with this tactic? No. I am far more ideological and could never be in politics. Have you noticed how public Trump is in supporting McCarthy? Even Don Trump Jr. after being off the radar map for a while has suddenly and very publicly joined his father endorsing McCarthy. It sure seems like a clarion signal that obsequiously says-- "Look, we Trumps are supporting you" in the hopes of getting political capital in return. From my involvement in politics, I found it to be detestable, slimy, and upsetting. I wanted to take a shower after every caucus. Unfortunately, being an idealist in politics never seems to work. It's all about cutting deals. IMHO, Trump already knows this.

McCarthy is still by far the most likely candidate to succeed. With the trickle of defectors going to Byron Donalds, it is not nearly enough momentum after 11 votes to prevent the inevitable. Trump's pause in supporting McCarthy was to see if McCarthy was still the best contender to win. After reviewing the rules and process, Trump reaffirmed his support for McCarthy. IMHO, this is the reason why Don Trump, Jr. was activated to help reaffirm this message publicly to McCarthy. I recently learned that 218 are not needed to win the Speaker's chair, only a majority is needed. This majority has to surpass Jeffries' 212 votes he has from the demonrats though. The likely scenario is McCarthy cuts major deals with the freedom caucus to garner the necessary votes to get him elected.