“Paul Ryan”, Mr Trump said during a rally in Green Bay, in northern Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state.
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Donald Trump endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin Friday evening, ending a four-day standoff between the GOP’s most powerful men.
Trump’s original speculation this week the House may need “very strong leadership” instead of Ryan flew in the face of party solidarity during a tense presidential year and after the speaker’s own appeals at the Republican National Convention in July the GOP unite against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
But Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday he wasn’t ready to endorse the speaker and offered praise for his opponent. “We need that. Arm in arm, we will rescue the nation from the Obama-Clinton disaster that has bled our country dry and has spread terrorism unabated across the world”.
This endorsement comes after Trump caused more discord within the party earlier this week when he said he was “not quite there yet” when asked if he supported Ryan’s re-election. “I’m not quite there yet”, Trump said in the Post interview.
Although Ryan is expected to easily win reelection of his Wisconsin district, Trump’s non endorsement of Ryan created ripples within the party throughout the week.
Over the past few days, Trump had refused to endorse either Ryan and McCain fuelling speculations that all is not well among the Republicans and the party is not united ahead of the crucial November general elections. “But I will do this because I feel I have to in order to defend Republicans and our principles so that people don’t make the mistake of thinking we think like that”.
Ryan is facing a primary challenge on Tuesday against businessman Paul Nehlen.
On Friday, Trump also made a rare admission he was wrong in claiming he saw a video of a U.S. cash payment going to Iran.
But the Ryan campaign said it had no knowledge of a pending endorsement.
“In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation”, he added.
The Democrat had told Fox News Sunday that Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey said her “answers were truthful” about whether she sent or received classified material via private email.
“He’s perhaps in a better position now to walk the line between out-and-out supporting Trump and rejecting him”, Skelley said. He called Trump’s remarks “beyond the pale” in a radio interview with WTAQ but did not withdraw his endorsement of the GOP nominee.
“I’m not going to get into any hypotheticals”, he said.
In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, Ms Clinton’s lead over Mr Trump narrowed to less than 3 percentage points, down from almost 8 points on Monday.
Trump lost the Wisconsin primary to Texas Sen.
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Mr Trump on Friday announced he was setting up an advisory team to help guide him on economic policy. “I don’t care who you are, what the hell are they doing?” “He doesn’t have to cozy himself up to Trump, and Trump is probably not going to be campaigning with him”.
