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Republicans have called for Donald Trump to fill the House Speaker vacancy left after the coup against Kevin McCarthy.
At least three Republican representatives have said the former president should enter Congress to “make the House great again”, as the GOP squabbles over who should take on the position.
Mr Trump has reportedly been open to approaches from Republican representatives about filling the position on a “short term” basis.
If he took the role, Mr Trump would become third in line to the presidency in the order of succession, after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Although Speakers have always been drawn from the House of Representatives, there is no legal requirement for that to be the case.
On Wednesday, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan became the first two Republicans to launch formal bids for the Speakership.
Mr Scalise, the majority leader in the House, is considered a frontrunner in the race, compared with Mr Jordan, the influential chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican, said on Tuesday night he would file paperwork to nominate Mr Trump, after eight representatives from the GOP voted with the Democrats to remove Mr McCarthy.
It is the first time a sitting Speaker has been removed by a vote in the House, leaving divided Republicans to find a replacement before next Wednesday.
‘Make the House great again’
“This week, when the US House of Representatives reconvenes, my first order of business will be to nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the US House of Representatives,” Mr Nehls said in a statement.
“President Trump, the greatest president of my lifetime, has a proven record of putting America First and will make the House great again.”
His call was backed by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican hardliner, and Greg Steube, a representative from Florida.
Ms Greene said: “[Mr Trump] has a proven 4 year record as president of the United States of America. He received a record number of Republican votes of any Republican presidential candidate!
“We can make him Speaker and then elect him president!”
On Wednesday night, the Fox News commentator Sean Hannity said: “I have been told that Trump might be open to helping the Republican party, at least in the short term, if necessary.”
A spokesman for Mr Trump did not respond to a request for comment on the rumours.
‘It’s not something I want to do’
Mr Trump has previously said he would not be interested in the job.
Asked about it last March, he said: “A lot of people bring it up. It’s brought up all the time. No, it’s not something I want to do.
“I want to look at what’s happening and then we’re going to be doing something else. No, it’s not something I would be interested in.”
On Wednesday, some Republicans against Trump’s nomination, said it would break internal GOP rules, which restrict suspects in major criminal cases from serving in the Speaker’s chair.
Responding to a clip of Mr Hannity claiming that Mr Trump would be interested in running, Sean Casten, a Republican from Illinois, said: “I would direct your attention to Rule 26(a) of the House Republican Conference rules for the 118th Congress.”
The rule states: “A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.”
The Speaker is considered one of the GOP’s four leadership positions in the House when it is the largest party.
Mr Trump has been indicted on 91 felony counts, many of which carry potential sentences of more than two years. They include two federal cases linked to his alleged mishandling of stolen documents in Mar-a-Lago and alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election.
The Republican Party’s rules are approved by elected representatives each November, in advance of the next session of Congress.
It is unclear whether the regulations could be changed ahead of the Speaker’s election, which is set to take place next week, but could be delayed.
Trump’s civil fraud case
On Wednesday, Mr Trump appealed a civil court ruling that he had fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and his own net worth.
The ruling last week, by Arthur Engoron, has given way to a trial which will determine what penalties he should face.
Mr Engoron said he found “conclusive evidence” that the purported value of Mar-a-Lago and the former president’s penthouse in Trump Tower had been exaggerated.
But speaking from the New York courthouse, Mr Trump said he had actually underestimated the size of his fortune.
“My financial documents are valued at much less than my actuarial value, which nobody even knows. The financial documents that I gave to the bank are much less than my net worth,” he said. “They can’t be a fraud because I gave them lower numbers.”
If successful, his appeal will upend the latest trial, set to run until late December, to determine whether he should be required to pay $250 million in fines for the fraud.
Mr Trump also repeated his attacks on Mr Engoron and Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought the case against him.
“The judge already knows what he’s going to do, he’s a Democrat judge,” he said.
“I’d rather be right now in Iowa. I’d rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places.
“But I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general that communicates with the DOJ [Department of Justice] in Washington to keep me nice and busy, because I’m leading Biden in the polls by a lot.”