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Former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said at a Harvard talk on Monday that his party needs to settle on new leaders and a clarified platform to succeed in the 2028 election cycle without the pull of President Donald Trump’s personality.

Without Trump, “I don’t think MAGA transfers,” McCarthy said at Monday’s forum, which was hosted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics. “I think the Republican Party, much like with the Democrats, they’re about to fight to determine which route they want to go.”

But in the meantime, McCarthy said, Trump is still at the height of his powers — and much of Congress remains ready to line up behind him.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-G.A.) was a case in point, McCarthy said. Despite her recent feud with Trump — which began with a clash over the Epstein files and quickly erupted into an all-out break with the president’s foreign policy platform — McCarthy predicted she would eventually return to the fold.

“You can make your point, but if you lose the vote, you can’t run away. You support what the group says,” McCarthy said. “And you know what, Marjorie will do that.”

The forum, moderated by former Harvard Kennedy School Dean Graham T. Allison ’62, was a rare public appearance for McCarthy, who resigned from the House in late 2023 — shortly after his own party booted him from the speakership.

No longer beholden to his party or constituency, the former speaker talked strategy for both sides before a packed crowd, in turn issuing praise to the current president and offering unsolicited advice to Democrats on their path forward.

Off the back of a strong performance in this November’s off-cycle elections, Democrats are poised to reclaim the House in 2026, McCarthy said, predicting they would capitalize on growing dissatisfaction with Republicans on health care and economic issues.

“You’re going to have to do something about it between then and now,” McCarthy said of Republicans. “Because if you’re coming out to the last Tuesday, you’re not winning.”

But Democrats lack strong party stewards, McCarthy said, casting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck E. Schumer ’71 (D-N.Y.) as ineffectual.

McCarthy predicted that Democrats would lose in 2028 if they swung to the left and aligned themselves with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose election inspired dispirited Democrats but gave Republicans ammunition to paint their opposition as radicals. Instead, McCarthy suggested the party emulate Bill Clinton’s centrist stance.

“If they nominate a Mamdani, I think they continue to lose,” McCarthy said. “If they nominate a governor, it’s kind of the middle that’s going to govern — it’s going to be a very competitive race.”

McCarthy took aim at another leading Democratic name on Monday: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who pushed through a measure to reconfigure his state’s congressional map in response to Republican redistricting efforts elsewhere, making it possible for Democrats to gain up to five seats in the House.

Over the summer, McCarthy — also from California — bashed Newsom’s measure, vowing at one point to sponsor an $100 million opposition campaign. The money never materialized, and Newsom’s measure passed easily. But McCarthy continued to attack the governor on Monday, drawing a contrast to his own efforts to flip the House in 2022.

“I didn’t redraw the lines. I just got better candidates and a better message,” he said. “I believe competition is good. I didn’t like being in the minority, so I worked hard.”

Aside from election prognostication, McCarthy spoke little about domestic policy. But he was quick to praise Trump’s work on the global stage, saying the president deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at peace-making in Gaza, Ukraine, and Pakistan.

A fragile ceasefire has held in Gaza and the United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a Trump-brokered peace plan, but the past few months have been marked by repeated surges of violence in Gaza and record rates of settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Russia has continued to pummel Ukrainian cities with air strikes since Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August. A proposed summit between the two leaders in Budapest fell apart earlier this fall.

“He’s willing to use the power of the presidency to try to end wars,” McCarthy said. “I mean, tell me, how long have we been fighting to try to do something in Israel and Gaza?”

Prompted by the audience, McCarthy couldn’t help but wade into current events.

When a member of the audience asked McCarthy about “two outsiders taking a lot of headlines” — billionaire Elon Musk and disgraced financier Jeffrey E. Epstein — McCarthy said Musk was a close friend and praised his ingenuity at SpaceX. He unequivocally denied a connection to Epstein.

“I never met the man. I’ve never been to the island, so there we go. He’s such a slimy guy,” McCarthy said. “And if you take all the emails – you’ll never see my name.”

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.

—Staff writer Tanya J. Vidhun can be reached at tanya.vidhun@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tanyavidhun.