Lauren Boebert Is Boosting QAnon Fan-Fic About Trump Becoming Speaker Now

On Wednesday afternoon, far-right Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert shocked Congress by suggesting former President Donald Trump call Rep. Kevin McCarthy and tell him “it’s time to withdraw” as he doesn’t have the votes to become Speaker of the House.

It seemed like Boebert, the gun-toting MAGA lawmaker who swept into Congress in 2020, had turned against him.

But hours later, during a heated interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Boebert suggested that getting McCarthy to step aside may all be part of a grand plan to bring the former president back to Washington.

“There are certainly names that have been floated around, and hey, maybe I should nominate President Donald J. Trump tomorrow,” Boebert said when asked about who should be speaker.

In response, Hannity, who has been critical of the far-right anti-McCarthy faction in the House, asked: “Is this a game show?”

Boebert is one of 20 House Republicans refusing to support McCarthy, leaving him far short of the 218 votes he needs to win.

The idea that Trump could return to power via the speaker’s chair is an idea that has been floating around conspiracy and MAGA circles ever since it became clear that the former president was not going to win the 2020 election.

There is no legal impediment to Trump becoming speaker, as technically anyone can be nominated, not just members of the House of Representatives.

The idea took hold in many extremist and QAnon channels as a possible avenue for Trump to return to the Oval Office, given that the speaker is the second in the line of succession to the presidency after the vice president. Some QAnon influencers suggested that his return as speaker would be all part of some grand plan to disrupt the deep state plot against him. According to this theory, Trump would be installed as speaker before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were unmasked as traitors and either hanged or sent to Guantanamo Bay.

While Trump has in the past called the prospect “very interesting,” there is virtually no chance that the former president would consider such a role, mainly because it is an incredibly time-consuming position and Trump is already ramping up for his 2024 presidential run. He has also been a vocal McCarthy supporter, even as McCarthy racks up loss after loss.

But it’s not just QAnon conspiracists who have been boosting the idea of Trump becoming speaker.

Back in July 2021, Rep. Matt Gaetz, who’s a leader of the anti-McCarthy faction, floated the idea, saying he had spoken to the former president about the plan, though he failed to say if Trump was interested.

Then in November 2021, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made a similar suggestion, telling former White House adviser Steve Bannon on his podcast: “I would love to see the gavel go from Nancy Pelosi to Donald Trump. You talk about melting down—people would go crazy.”

At a March 2022 rally in Georgia, Gaetz once again boosted the idea, introducing the former president by saying: “Give us the ability to fire Nancy Pelosi, take back the majority, impeach Joe Biden and I am going to nominate Donald Trump for speaker of the United States House of Representatives.”

On Wednesday, QAnon and conspiracy channels on fringe platforms like Telegram excitedly discussed Boebert’s comment. Many pointed to a Twitter account called “Il Donaldo Trumpo,” which many QAnon supporters believe is run by the former president himself and has over 620,000 followers.

However, hours after appearing on Fox News, Boebert herself seemed to have moved on to another potential candidate for Speaker of the House:

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