当凯文·麦卡锡面对他的第二天努力成为众议院议长他得到了唐纳德·特朗普热情的信任票。
这位前总统不仅支持麦卡锡竞选议长(几个月前他就已经这么做了);他警告共和党人，不选麦卡锡将是共和党的灾难。
“投票给凯文，”特朗普周三早上在他的真理社交平台上用大写字母告诫道。“不要把伟大的特朗普变成巨人&尴尬的败北。"
发生了什么?没有一个反麦卡锡的共和党人按照特朗普的要求做了。事实上，在特朗普发表声明后的一轮投票中，麦卡锡的票数实际上有所下降，因为众议员维多利亚·斯帕茨(Victoria Spartz，R-Ind)。，从投票支持麦卡锡转为投票“出席”。
后来，斯帕茨对特朗普的麦卡锡支持完全不屑一顾。
“我是一名独立的立法者，”她告诉记者。“我在乎我的人民说什么，也在乎选举我的人说什么。”
科罗拉多州的反麦卡锡强硬派和特朗普的铁杆支持者众议员劳伦·博贝特不仅无视他的警告-她在众议院把他叫了出来。
“让我们停止竞选诽谤和让人们转而反对我们的策略，甚至让我最喜欢的总统打电话给我们，告诉我们需要停止这一点，我认为这实际上需要逆转。总统需要告诉凯文·麦卡锡，先生，你没有足够的票数，是时候退出了。”
唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)无法影响一张共和党选票，这既说明了麦卡锡的问题，也说明了特朗普的问题。
反麦卡锡的反抗由众议院中一些最狂热地支持特朗普的共和党人领导。如果特朗普连他们的选票都无力影响，那特朗普到底有什么权力?
麦卡锡努力争取特朗普的支持。他在担任总统期间与特朗普建立了密切的关系，并成为特朗普离开白宫后第一个访问Mar-a-Lago的共和党领导人，在1月6日国会大厦遇袭后仅三周，他就与特朗普合影。
在某种程度上，麦卡锡的策略奏效了。特朗普一直支持麦卡锡竞选议长，甚至在共和党去年11月赢得多数席位之前就支持他。
川普甚至打电话给众议院共和党人，敦促他们投票给麦卡锡。但赢得特朗普的支持并没有帮助麦卡锡赢得议长职位。
正如特朗普的一位亲密顾问告诉美国广播公司新闻的那样，“坦率地说，我不确定他是否动了一票。”
Donald Trump's McCarthy endorsement a non-factor in GOP speaker standoff
As Kevin McCarthy faced Day 2 of his struggle to become House speaker, he got an enthusiastic vote of confidence from Donald Trump.
The former president did more than endorse McCarthy for speaker (something he had already done months ago); he warned Republicans that failing to elect McCarthy would be a disaster for the Republican Party.
"VOTE FOR KEVIN," Trump admonished in all-caps on his Truth Social platform Wednesday morning. "DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT."
And what happened? Not a single anti-McCarthy Republican did what Trump asked. In fact, the number of votes for McCarthy actually went down in the round of balloting after Trump's statement, as Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., switched from voting in favor of McCarthy to voting "present."
Afterward, Spartz was utterly dismissive of Trump's McCarthy endorsement.
"I am an independent legislator," she told reporters. "I care what my people say and the people who elected me."
Anti-McCarthy hardliner and die-hard Trump-backer Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado not only disregarded his warning -- she called him out on the House floor.
"Let's stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us, even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off, I think it actually needs to be reversed. The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes and it's time to withdraw."
Donald Trump's inability to sway a single Republican vote says as much about Trump as it does about McCarthy.
The anti-McCarthy revolt has been led by some of the most fervently pro-Trump Republicans in the House. If Trump is powerless to influence even their votes, what power does Trump really have?
McCarthy worked hard to get Trump's endorsement. He cultivated a close relationship with Trump while he was president and became the first Republican leader to visit Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House, famously posing in a photo with Trump a mere three weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a way, McCarthy's strategy worked. Trump has consistently supported McCarthy's bid for speaker, endorsing him even before Republicans won the majority las November.
Trump has even made calls to House Republicans urging them to vote for McCarthy. But winning Trump's support, hasn't helped McCarthy win the speakership.
As one close adviser to Trump told ABC News, "To be brutally frank, I'm not sure he's moved one vote."
