Former President Donald Trump spoke at a private event at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, and gave praise to both newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, the man who stood in the way of McCarthy's ascension until the very end. Footage of the speech was obtained by Jack Posobiec of Human Events Daily.
"We had a great success last night," Trump said of the vote for McCarthy. "And I really beleive that four days of trauma has made the Republican Party a much stronger party." McCarthy won the vote after a last minute call from Trump.
"You're much better off," he continued, "and congratulations to everybody in that very beautiful room last night, and to Kevin I give a special congratulations. Because what he did, you have to say one thing: he just didn't give up.
"Because a lot of people that would have left three days ago. He had to sit through 15 or 16 of those deals, and that could not have been easy. But I think he's going to do a really good job."
He didn't stop with praising McCarthy for his steadfast determination that led to victory, but offered support for Gaetz, saying "I want to give credit to Matt Gaetz, and all of the people that we've got."
He called out South Carolina's Ralph Norman, as well as the 20 who initially objected to McCarthy's leadership. "They were just fed up," he said. "I mean they were fed up. And I think that they've done a tremendous service." These 20 eventually worked with McCarthy, and each other, to secure considerations that allowed them to move forward to support McCarthy.
"I actually put something out," Trump said, "that I believe the Republican Party, had it just gotten like normally, you know, where you go in, you have one shot, they approve somebody and that's the end of it— I believe the Republican Party is much stronger now and much more unified because of what took place," Trump said the the assembled crowd of MAGA luminaries.
"A lot of very conservative things have happened," he said. "You watch what's going to take place. I think Kevin's going to do a terrific job. I think Kevin was really bolstered by the events that took place."
"Nobody thought that was possible," he continued. "And I want to give credit to the 20 people and all of them. All of the people, all the people they just had enough and what what's happened is I think something that will be maybe country changing, because we cannot allow our country to continue on this path of destruction."
McCarthy won the vote for Speaker of the House during a late night voting session on Friday night after a week of voting and negotiating. Trump had backed McCarthy from the beginning, and called Gaetz on Friday night before McCarthy secured the votes for Speaker.