Matt Gaetz votes for Trump to become House speaker as Kevin McCarthy loses for the 7th time

• Rep. Matt Gaetz voted for former President Donald Trump for House speaker on Thursday.
• Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost his bid for House speaker for the seventh time.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Thursday cast his vote for former President Donald Trump to become House speaker as embattled GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is on a losing streak for the gavel.

The House was voting for its seventh time to elect a speaker as Gaetz, a staunch Trump supporter, called out the former president's name for the top post, though he wasn't formally nominated.

Gaetz is among 20 hardline House Republicans who have repeatedly threatened McCarthy's chances of becoming speaker since the start of the 118th Congress on Tuesday. McCarthy, who needs a simple majority of 218 votes to secure the job, failed again because of the GOP holdouts.

Gaetz's vote for Trump is a sign of his continued resistance to McCarthy controlling the House Republican Conference despite the California Republican making a number of concessions to win over the ultra-conservative defectors.

After McCarthy was defeated in three consecutive ballots and the House adjourned on Wednesday evening, he met with some of his detractors in an effort to drum up support. Among the new concessions McCarthy reportedly made include agreeing to a rule that would weaken his power if elected by allowing only one member to initiate a vote on ousting him from his role.

Yet there appears to have been limited, if any, progress in negotiations as the anti-McCarthy group remained opposed to him in the seventh vote on Thursday. Nineteen of them voted for Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican whom they've repeatedly put forth against McCarthy. The last holdout, Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, voted present.

Gaetz has been one of the most vocal critics of McCarthy, telling reporters earlier this week that his fellow holdouts struggle with trusting the Republican leader.

"If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise," Gaetz said Tuesday. "I'm a Florida man and I know of what I speak."

Gaetz's vote for Trump also comes as the former president on Wednesday morning urged the holdouts to support McCarthy.