Donald Trump has taken steps to steer his presidential campaign back into favour with the Republican party by endorsing US House Speaker Paul Ryan, after failing to endorse him earlier this week.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan says Donald Trump could cross a line that would prevent the speaker from backing him, but “Where that line is, I don’t know”.
“I need a Republican Senate and a House to accomplish all the changes we have to make”, added Trump, who also said “my 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy”, a phrase often attributed to Ronald Reagan.
Ryan, the top United States elected Republican, had no plans to attend the Wisconsin event, a sign of lingering frictions between the pair, even though Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, did endorse him.
Trump told the Washington Post earlier this week he likes Ryan, “But these are awful times for our country”.
Mr Nehlen said Mr Trump’s decision “is appropriate and is a display of true leadership”. Pence responded, vaguely, that he looked forward to supporting GOP candidates but also mentioned the need for new leadership “to restore our country at home and overseas”.
“And while I’m at it”, he said after endorsing Ryan, “I hold in the highest esteem Sen. I’m not quite there yet”, Trump said in the Post interview. Trump’s reticence echoed the same hesitation Ryan expressed when Trump locked up the party’s presidential nomination in May.
“I fully expected it”, said Nehlen, who added that he did not speak with or meet with Trump in recent days beyond their public exchange on Twitter. Ryan had reiterated that his support for the presidential nominee was not guaranteed.
The rare of note of party unity continued as Mr Trump also threw his support behind Arizona Senator John McCain and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, with whom he has rowed.
“This is one of the most important elections in my lifetime”, Trump said at Friday’s rally in Green Bay. “It’s going to be an all-encompassing look at how we reform the economy”, Moore said.
In the Post interview, Trump said McCain had done a bad job for veterans and faulted Ayotte, one of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents, for giving him “zero support”.
Trump’s approach to national security came under fire Friday as well, with former CIA Director Michael Morell contending the Republican nominee would make “a poor, even unsafe commander in chief”.
“Donald Trump and Mike Pence recognize that we can not win Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat in November with McCain, the ultimate establishment insider and champion of compromise, as our nominee”, she said in a statement.
Donald Trump is under political fire even from some Republicans and his poll numbers are heading in the wrong direction, but aides insist that things are turning around. After all, how can you when you create unnecessary drama with the Speaker of the House.
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Donald Trump is drawing tens of thousands to his rallies.
