Trump will be a 'ghost Speaker of the House' blowing up GOP efforts to set the agenda: reporter

On Friday's edition of MSNBC's "All In," New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper argued that should Republicans take control of the House next week, as most election forecasters believe to be likely, they will face an immediate problem in trying to get all of their various factions to work together.

And further complicating all of this, he added, former President Donald Trump himself will be constantly upending the conversation, assuming the mantle as de facto leader of the GOP even as current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), expected to become speaker, attempts to set an agenda.

"We have watched what happened in the U.K. with their craziness and leadership turning over and proposing things that cause financial markets to go — the level of chaos a House Republican Party is going to bring is really underappreciated by most people," said anchor Chris Hayes. "I think you have a beat into the fact that this is going to be utterly unwieldy."

"Unwieldy on multiple levels, Chris," said Draper. "For one thing, the chaos that will ensue will be intramural, I think. You do have plenty of Republicans eager to see power because they want to have certain classically Republican things done, more tax cuts, stripping away Obamacare protections, things like that. Then you have the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, who want a far-right agenda and will push at every turn against something that looks milquetoast to them. Finally you have, as you put very eloquently, the ghost Speaker of the House, Donald Trump. Donald Trump wants fealty to Trump."

The real complication for Republicans, added Draper, is that Trump is "not going to be pushing an agenda" and will talk over GOP efforts to create one to make the conversation about himself — even to the detriment of far-right Trump loyalists when they are trying to set policy.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, has actually been saying that there needs to be justice reforms, all the January 6 people are being unfairly prosecuted," said Draper. "Who knows what that will look like legislatively. "We do know Trump doesn't give a damn about that. Trump will care about only — he's already said this constantly — about who right now has pledged, basically, a fealty to the Trump vision, which starts with his notion that the 2020 election was stolen. He wants everybody in line on that. The real — important issues related to the debt ceiling, related to the funding of Ukraine, will come into play."

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