Musk tweets support for McCarthy as House speaker following days of gridlock

WASHINGTON (TND) — Amid turmoil over who will be the next House speaker, Twitter CEO Elon Musk took to his platform Thursday morning to announce his support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

As of Thursday morning, McCarthy has come up short in six rounds of voting, with GOP holdouts against his speakership standing in the way.

“Kevin McCarthy should be Speaker,” Musk tweeted early Thursday morning.

After voting six times over the course of two days, Congress adjourned until noon Thursday, when a seventh speaker vote is expected to take place.

Reports from Capitol Hill say McCarthy is beginning to soften up to some concessions, which he was previously resistant to accepting, in order to help earn himself the 218 votes necessary to become speaker.

Among those concessions is a one-member “motion to vacate,” which would mean just one GOP vote in the House would be needed to force a vote to oust the current speaker. Others include providing spots on the powerful House Rules Committee to members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus, and issuing a vote on term limits for members of Congress.

READ MORE: "Kevin McCarthy makes last-ditch effort to swing GOP in favor of his speakership"

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump also publicly extolled his support for McCarthy as speaker.

“Some really good conversations took place last night, and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,” the former 45th president wrote on his Truth Social platform Wednesday morning. “THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE ‘HOUSE’ TWICE! REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT.”

However, by Wednesday evening, Trump conceded that the gridlock and resulting internal negotiations among the GOP “will end up making the Republican Party STRONGER and more UNITED than ever before.”

Trump added Thursday that “a big Republican VICTORY today” would make the position and process of selecting a House speaker “BIGGER & MORE IMPORTANT than if it were done in the more traditional way.”