Trump-aligned hard-liner who defended Coupang named new House Republican leader

[Financial News] The U.S. Republican Party, which suffered a crushing defeat in this month’s midterm elections, has elected Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as its House leader for next year. A hard-line pro-Trump conservative, he has also clashed with the South Korean government while defending Coupang.
According to Politico and other local media outlets, Republicans met behind closed doors on the 10th (local time) and elected Jordan as their leader for the new House session beginning January 3 next year. The vote was 106 to 73. Incumbent leader Steve Scalise, who ran against Jordan, was defeated.
Unlike Scalise, who was a pragmatist, Jordan belongs to the hard right and is also close to U.S. President Donald Trump. During Trump’s first administration, he raised his profile by taking the lead in defending against Democrats’ efforts to impeach the president. Trump awarded Jordan the Medal of Freedom shortly before leaving office in 2021. The Medal of Freedom is the highest honor a president can bestow on a civilian. Jordan also strongly echoed Trump’s claim that he lost the 2020 presidential election because it was rigged, and led the Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-line conservatives within the Republican Party in Congress. According to CNN, during the vote for House Republican leader, Jordan argued that he was best suited to take on Democrats, who had swept both the House and Senate. CNN described Jordan as “a pro-Trump warrior known for his pugilistic temperament” and said Republicans had put the party’s most aggressive and combative figure forward as its face. It also said the vote was a clear signal that Republicans were preparing for battle, not compromise, with Democrats.
Jordan, who currently chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has also clashed with the South Korean government while defending Coupang. He sent a subpoena to Coupang last February, and in July spearheaded a 35-page interim report alleging that the South Korean government discriminates against U.S. companies including Coupang. At the time, Jordan was listed as a co-author of the report alongside Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative and Regulatory Reform and Antitrust.
Jordan also joined a joint letter from four Republican House members in August expressing concern that South Korea’s amended Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection could infringe on the freedom of expression of U.S. companies and users.


[email protected] Park Jong-won Reporter