Trump just injected even more chaos into the GOP's weeks-long struggle to find a new speaker

• Trump isn't a fan of Tom Emmer, the GOP's latest nominee for speaker of the House.
• Trump said Emmer is a "RINO" and that supporting him would be a "tragic mistake."
• The comments from the former president spell immediately trouble for Emmer's bid.

The weeks-long quest to find a new Republican speaker of the House took yet another chaotic turn on Tuesday after former President Donald Trump bashed his party's newly-elected nominee, Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota.

"I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them."

Trump went on to claim that Emmer — the current House GOP whip and the chairman of the party's House campaign arm in both 2020 and 2022 — is "totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters."

"Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!" he concluded.

Members of Trump's orbit have long held suspicions about Emmer, with some pointing to the fact that the Minnesota Republican has not yet endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign and a perception that he's not "MAGA." But some Trump allies have held back so far, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson telling Insider on Monday that he had "no plans" to get involved in the race.

But it's a shift for Trump from even Monday, when he told reporters he planned to stay out of the race.

Needless to say, Trump just made it a lot harder for House Republicans to put the last three weeks of chaos behind them and unify around Emmer, who bested several other candidates during a closed-door party vote on Tuesday.

Emmer was already dealing with somewhere around 20 holdouts, including several members of the House Freedom Caucus and Rep. Rick Allen, who declared he was "Never Emmer" over the Minnesota Republican's voted to protect same-sex marriage last year.

Emmer can only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes on the floor, and while Trump's endorsement wasn't enough for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to win the speaker's gavel last week, his invective is likely to significantly complicate — if not doom — Emmer's campaign.

At least one Democrat — Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota — had floated the idea of helping Emmer win by abstaining from the floor vote for speaker, effectively allowing him to win without a majority of the chamber.

But not all Democrats are on board. Rep. Jim Govern of Massachusetts told Insider on Tuesday that he's "not into" that idea.

"As far as I'm concerned, the Republicans have to decide if they want him to be speaker," said McGovern.