After weeks of withholding a formal endorsement, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan has announced he will vote for Donald Trump to be U.S. president. We’ve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas.
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The speaker didn’t give Mr. Trump’s campaign a heads-up that his endorsement would be coming Thursday, but he did notify a small group of House GOP leaders shortly before his comments went online.
Ryan said that in the next week House Republicans “will start introducing a series of policy proposals that address the American people’s top priorities”.
Ryan acknowledged that he and Trump “have our differences” and promised that, “when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind”.
Ryan said the endorsement is not the product of any deal with the billionaire developer.
Campaigning last week in New Mexico, Trump attacked the state’s Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, the most prominent GOP Latina and the chair of the Republican Governors Association, after she hadn’t yet endorsed him.
Ryan’s announcement was released as Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was delivering a foreign policy speech excoriating Trump’s foreign policy.
Ryan shocked the political world last month by refusing to endorse Trump once the real estate mogul became the last major Republican presidential contender still in the race. Ryan said he made the decision to formally endorse Trump earlier in the week. In early May, the speaker had said he was “not ready” to back the candidate, launching an awkward dance between the two.
Congressman Chris Collins of NY says in a statement that Ryan’s endorsement “reinforces the fact that Republicans are united in our fight to defeat Hillary Clinton”.
“I had friends wishing I wouldn’t support him”.
“Those conversations took some time”, Ryan said.
Ryan had previously criticized some of Trump’s positions and the two men have significant differences on an assortment of policy issues.
Ryan writes in the Janesville Gazette that Trump “would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives”.
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While Ryan’s decision could push some Republican leaders off the fence, many holdouts remained, such as two former rivals, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of SC. “But Paul Ryan’s not a national elected figure-Donald Trump is”.
