Trump takes credit for McCarthy Speaker win

Former President Trump is taking a victory lap following Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-Calif.) win after 15 rounds of voting.

“The Fake News Media was, believe it or not, very gracious in their reporting that I greatly helped Kevin McCarthy attain the position of Speaker of the House,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

“Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!”

Although there was talk of Trump’s weakened political clout after Republicans opposed to McCarthy’s Speakership bid ignored the former president’s urging to back him, reports throughout the days-long voting process showed that Trump may have successfully swayed some of McCarthy’s GOP detractors.

Trump placed a potentially critical phone call to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whose “present” vote solidified McCarthy’s defeat on the 14th ballot late Friday night, according to The New York Times. The former president also spoke on the phone with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another vocal McCarthy holdout, CNN reported.

Trump was also in contact with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on the night that McCarthy won the Speakership, who was seen in a widely circulated photo trying to hold her phone up to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), one of McCarthy’s last remaining detractors. The caller ID shown in the photo read “DT,” and Greene later confirmed that it was, in fact, Trump on the other line.

McCarthy praised Trump while speaking to reporters after he secured the gavel, saying, “I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning.”