Trump Was 'Infuriated' with Single Vote for him as Speaker: Book

Donald Trump was "infuriated" at receiving a single vote to become Speaker of the House after seriously considering the role.

A new book by ABC News presenter Jonathan Karl says key sources in the camps of the former president and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy revealed Trump thought more about the role than he has suggested publicly.

During the tumultuous rounds of voting to elect Speaker McCarthy in January this year— a record 15 rounds was required—Trump received just one vote in each of the seventh and eight rounds.

He was nominated by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz.

"Trump was watching all of this play out live," Karl told the Stay Tuned With Preet podcast hosted by Preet Bharara. "All of the networks including Fox would show X number of votes for [each candidate]. Then in got to Donald Trump... one. This infuriated Trump. It was embarrassing.

"It goes through another round and Gaetz does it again. So Trump calls Gaetz and says: 'knock it off.' There's a funny little detail about this that Gaetz, when Trump calls him, starts the conversation by saying, 'Congratulations, Mr President. You are the first president since John Quincy Adams to get a vote for Speaker of the House.'"

Newsweek reached out to Trump's representatives via email for comment.

Karl said Trump was "mad" at the situation and felt "embarrassed" and made sure Gaetz did not vote for him again. In an extract of his book, Karl wrote: "Gaetz eventually realized his stunt was upsetting the former president and switched his vote to Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma for the next two rounds of balloting."

Later, Karl wrote that Trump wanted McCarthy to be elected to end the situation as it had "infuriated" him. No other votes for Trump were heard until Gaetz voted for him again during round 11.

"Trump reaches out once again as we get near to the final rounds of voting," Karl told Bharara. "He tells Gaetz the problem here was that his name never actually put in nomination so people didn't realize they could actually vote for him."

Karl says some sources claim Trump told Gaetz directly to put his name down for nomination while another "simply made it clear and Gaetz knew what he had to do." Later, Gaetz railed at the House in a speech, defending his decision to nominate the former president despite him facing a raft of legal woes and criminal charges.

Only MAGA ally Lauren Boebert could be heard applauding the speech. No other votes were made for Trump during the contest.

Trump never had much interest but became engaged in the possibility when he saw the drama of the situation unfolding in the House, Karl said. He continued: "The idea had been floated immediately after January 20, 2021, when he lost."

Karl was speaking about his new book Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party. A Trump official described Karl's previous books on the former president as "disgraceful and talentless," the Guardian has reported.

They said: "This filth either belongs in the discount bargain bin in the fiction section of the bookstore or should be repurposed as toilet paper."