Trump aides laughed off a rumor that he would run for the House in 2022 because it's a 'real job' that requires actual work, book says

• Donald Trump's aides laughed off the idea he'd run for House speaker in 2022, a new book says.
• They considered it a "real job" in which he'd need to "actually work," Michael Wolff wrote.
• Trump himself said in June that it was unlikely he'd run for office in the 2022 midterms.

Aides working for former President Donald Trump laughed off rumors that he would run for a House of Representatives seat in 2022 and seek to lead the impeachment of President Joe Biden, according to a new book, saying the role of House speaker was a "real job" that would require Trump to "actually work."

The idea that Trump might pursue a seat in the House first drew widespread attention in June. During an interview with Trump, the conspiracy theorist and far-right radio host Wayne Allyn Root suggested that Trump run for office in the 2022 midterm elections in Florida. From there, Root suggested, Trump could lead a Republican takeover of Congress, impeach Biden, initiate criminal investigations into him, and then run for president again in 2024.

"You become the speaker of the House, lead the impeachment of Biden, and start criminal investigations against Biden," Root said. "You'll wipe him out for this last two years."

Trump called the idea "so interesting."

But Trump's aides dismissed the idea, according to Michael Wolff's forthcoming book, "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency," which was excerpted in the Times of London on Monday.

"For Trump aides, though, this was risible," Wolff wrote. "Speaker of the House is a 'real job,' and Trump, in no way, is going to actually work."

Presidential schedules obtained by Axios showed that Trump spent much of his days in "executive time," a sort of unstructured time when he'd watch cable news, make phone calls, and take meetings.

Days after his interview with Root, Trump dismissed the suggestion that he run for a House seat, telling the Fox Business host Stuart Varney that it's "highly unlikely."

The Constitution does not require that the speaker of the House of Representatives be an elected member. Trump, who continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, has expressed interest in running for president again in 2024.

Wolff's book reports other claims about Trump, including that he asked random Mar-a-Lago visitors for lawyer recommendations and that his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner lobbied against Trump trying to pardon himself before the end of his presidency.