Ryan on Thursday said that he would refrain from immediately supporting Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
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Trump fired back in a statement, saying, “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda”. The billionaire businessman sent a tweet from his Trump Tower office featuring a picture of him eating a taco bowl and declaring his affection for one of America’s fastest-growing and politically powerful minority groups.
“I hope to support our nominee, I hope to support his candidacy fully”, Mr Ryan said told CNN on Thursday. “I think conservatives want to know: Does he share our values and our principles?” “He could get to Cleveland and designate someone as his vice president and have the convention lose its mind”, said Erick Erickson, an anti-Trump conservative activist.
Mr Ryan criticised Mr Trump in December for proposing to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States and knocked him in March for failing to denounce white supremacist groups during a television interview.
But he lavishly praised House Speaker Paul Ryan – whose own declaration earlier Thursday that he wasn’t yet endorsing Trump sent shockwaves through the GOP.
“Well nothing’s impossible, but like I said, I’ve said this many times, highly and I’d add another one-highly unlikely”, Priebus reiterated. “Ryan champions free-trade agreements, global military engagement, and sweeping overhauls of Social Security and Medicare, whereas Trump is an avowed opponent of recent trade deals, foreign interventions and proposed changes to entitlement programs”, the Post reported. “Many people aren’t sure what the Trump agenda is yet”.
One key worry for Republicans has been that their candidates for Congress and other elective positions could suffer with the divisive figure of Mr Trump at the top of the ticket.
“I’m going to pick a Republican and we’ll have a tremendous victory”, Trump said Friday, noting he was particularly pleased to have the backing of former 2016 presidential campaign rival Rick Perry of Texas.
But Ryan did add that his refusal to endorse or support Trump should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
US Representative Renee Ellmers, a Republican from North Carolina who has endorsed Mr Trump, told Reuters the campaign would begin raising money for the party.
Mitt Romney and both Presidents Bush say they’re skipping the convention in July. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people”, he said.
The cool reception from Romney, Bush and Ryan sends an unmistakable signal to their fundraising networks, which include most of the GOP’s best-connected donors.
“He’s got all these people working together, and it’s absolutely remarkable”, Romney said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is joined by his wife Melania, right, daughter Ivanka, left, and son Eric, background left, as he speaks during a primary night news conference, Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in NY.
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“Trump has been strong and clear”.
