Republican Donald Trump took steps to steer his White House campaign back into favor with his party on Friday with reported plans to endorse U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan after expressing coolness toward him earlier this week.
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Trump triggered a furore 72 hours earlier when he told The Washington Post he was “not quite” ready to endorse Ryan in his upcoming primary, an extraordinary rebuke to the party’s top elected official.
Trump told the Washington Post earlier this week he likes Ryan, “But these are disgusting times for our country”. He said “Donald Trump and I are standing shoulder to shoulder to say to the American people, ‘We can be strong again'”.
In these hard times, we need a president who will bring our nation together, not someone who will divide us by race or religion, not someone who lacks an understanding of what our Constitution is about. At the time, Ryan had said, “I’m not there right now”, in an interview on CNN.
“Neither of those candidates are flawless candidates and I don’t agree with either of them on everything”, says Zeldin. “Honestly the endorsement, personally the ones that I care about are the ones from the people here in Wisconsin, my first congressional district employers”.
“If Donald Trump was a teenager he definitely would be the kid who turns the Nintendo off the second he starts losing at Mario Kart”.
Trump’s move to endorse Ryan, McCain and Ayotte is an attempt to put the controversy and feuds behind him.
“In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation”, wrote Morell, who was CIA director in the Obama administration and now works for a firm run by one of Clinton’s closest advisers.
Trump on Friday evening also threw his support behind Arizona Sen.
“I strongly support Paul Ryan, strongly endorse his reelection”, he told Fox News.
To make this extra awkward, number-one Trump fan Ann Coulter will be in Ryan’s district tomorrow to campaign with his opponent, Paul Nehlen. More than 20 percent of Coffman’s constituents are Latino and another 15 percent are foreign-born: not exactly those Trump has worked to win over. He said, “I’m suggesting we have a discussion about it, that’s for sure”. “I’m not going to try to psychoanalyze this stuff”.
The tension between the Republican heavyweights complicates Trump’s push to compete in Wisconsin, a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984.
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Trump’s reversal came amid a decline in his poll ratings both nationally and in crucial battleground states, with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton establishing a solid lead in the aftermath of the party conventions.
