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Paul Ryan reflects on his relationship with Donald Trump

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he decided not to run for re-election so he could spend more time with his children. He had just hosted a donor retreat last week in Texas, and most officials believed he would not leave until after November.

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Among its other consequences, Speaker Paul Ryan ‘s retirement from the House increases the chance that President Donald Trump will be impeached.

Last fall, veteran journalist Chris Cillizza depicted Ryan as having “spent the past two years drawing lines in the sand – and then erasing them when Trump, inevitably, overstepped”. I called him a flimflam man back in 2010, and nothing he has done since has called that judgment into question. Should the party lose its majority, the top Republican would be minority leader, not speaker.

Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania who is also retiring, noted the difficulty of Ryan’s position.

Ryan’s intentions were first reported by Axios.

And at least some members and a leader of the Tea Party movement have publically and privately suggested they could add to the congressional ranks after November, giving them more power in leadership voting.

“The Speaker has kept up his breakneck fundraising schedule, traveling to more than 30 states and over 70 cities to help raise money for House Republicans this cycle, while keeping his pledge to spend weekends at home in Wisconsin”, Ryan’s organization said when announcing the fundraising figures. He went on to spotlight what he sees as his own achievements ― such as establishing empowerment zones in poor communities, passing tax reform and spurring economic growth ― and said he hopes to accomplish more this year. “So I will be setting new priorities in my life”, he said.

“I can’t let that happen”, he said. But it is widely known that Trump enjoys a close relationship with McCarthy, whom the president once publicly referred to as “my Kevin” and has invited to weekend retreats in Florida.

Ryan’s tightrope walk continued after Trump entered the White House.

Ryan’s image among Americans suffered significantly in 2017: Gallup’s most recent poll on Americans’ opinions of Ryan took place in April 2017, after Republicans in Congress – under Ryan’s leadership – failed to enact legislation that would fulfill Trump’s promise to “repeal and replace” the ACA.

Asked Thursday whether his comment constituted an endorsement of McCarthy, Scalise said that conversation is “way ahead of us”.

Ryan has been publicly noncommittal for months about running for re-election, repeating a formulation that he was not going anywhere anytime soon. We made our decision a different way this year. The Trumpian revolution, which Ryan had long resisted, appeared to have claimed another victory, dispatching another occasional critic and reaffirming the president’s growing hold on a shrinking electoral coalition. White supremacy is repulsive.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Republican tax bill Ryan pushed a year ago will result in a federal deficit of $1.5 trillion in 2020.

The many in Washington who personally like Ryan often wonder how he could so readily cozy up to Trump and empower House members – notably Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes – who have turned themselves into propagandists for Trump’s desperate quest to escape accountability. Several others have resigned in personal scandals. Two representatives of the state, both from districts with very high Trump support, will run to replace Corker.

Ryan assumed the speakership owing to factors that are now driving him out of it.

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“Paul Ryan’s commitment to protecting the House majority is greater today than it was yesterday”, said Bliss.

Trump sees ally in possible House leader'My Kevin McCarthy