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Ryan – Trump meeting a sham?
Politics –
Ryan – Trump Meeting A Sham?
The long-awaited “unity summit” between House Speaker Paul Ryan and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has come and gone. Although both sides are claiming a collective truce to their in-party differences, the reality is that their new-found BFF status is all a sham!
Politics
It was the Kumbaya moment the political world was waiting for: Donald Trump, the feisty newcomer to politics who has surprisingly hijacked the Grand Ol’ Party, versus Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the last remaining guard of the old Republican establishment who surprisingly said he would not support Trump for president.
Ryan shocked Trump and most everyone else when he announced publicly he was “not ready” to endorse Trump. A sitting Republican leader absolutely refusing to support the likely presidential nominee of his own party was not only unheard of, but went against the grain of American politics. So, did anything magical happen to bring the 2 parties together? Not really!
Initially, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus put a positive spin on the meeting, boasting that it went “great” and was “all positive.” However, the 2 attendees soon released a joint statement to allude that things were not as rosy as it seems.
“While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground,” the men said in a joint statement. “We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal.”
Noticeably absent from the statement was even a hint of the speaker changing course to back Trump.
Ryan said 11 times that he was “encouraged” by the meeting. However, his carefully constructed words were far short of a full-throated endorsement. He also said he wants to keep meeting to “make sure we are operating off the same core principles.” His words seemed to suggest a potential “teacher/student” relationship with Trump, a role the likely nominee would almost certainly dismiss.
Most interesting is that Ryan made it clear he has set a standard for Trump: He wants the party to have an optimistic, hopeful message that inspires voters, rather than an angry one (such as the divisive tone Trump has set) that draws on and feeds the frustrations of Americans without offering workable solutions.
“How do we keep adding and adding voters while not subtracting any voters? And to me, that means a positive vision based on core principles, taking those principles, applying them to the problems facing our country today, and offering people positive solutions,” the speaker said.
Politics
Party leaders are becoming skittish that public discord between the top elected Republican official and the likely GOP presidential nominee will only play into the hands of the Democrats. So, they are hoping to present the “perception” of unity, even where there is none. That’s why rank-and-file House Republicans have urged Speaker Ryan to get behind Trump ASAP, warning his resistance could lead to the party fracturing further.
“It makes it harder to unite,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican and leader within the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
For Trump, the notion of making amends and reaching common ground with the wing of the party he totally trashed during the primaries, is not on his list of priorities.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Trump made it clear he doesn’t need to earn anyone’s support and was prepared to continue to play by his own rules.
“Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party,” Trump said via Twitter. “Wrong, I didn’t inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!”
It’s this type of demeanor that has left the House Speaker with little to no trust of Donald Trump. Ryan knows that whatever he might get Trump to agree to, Trump is just as likely to abandon it within 24 hours. For example, Trump agreed in their joint statement to “advance a conservative agenda,” then totally abandoned his stance soon thereafter by dismissing the notion that the very identity of the GOP is based on its conservative ideas.
For Speaker Ryan, his response was very telling.
“There are people who were for Donald Trump, who were for Ted Cruz, or for John Kasich, who were for Marco Rubio and everybody else. And it’s very important that we don’t fake unifying,” he said.
For as much as both sides are publicly downplaying their disagreements, the fact is they are miles apart on key issues, as well as on what kind of message the GOP should run on in the fall. Their joint statement said that they have “few differences,” but the evidence points to the contrary.
Ryan and Trump said they have an “opportunity” to unify, but they never predicted it would indeed happen. No matter the spin from the RNC, the Speaker of the House and his party’s presumptive presidential nominee are far from being on the same page. The question is, will they ever be?
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Paul Ryan is what passes for a Republican leader of "true conservative principles" despite the fact he's on record as having "voted for every major piece of the Bush administration’s domestic agenda no matter how fiscally irresponsible it was." So Paul Ryan, IMO, epitomizes Republcanism, which is mostly about packaging, gimmicks (including a sham "Unity" meeting), Fake self-image etc. There is very little-to-NO real substance at all. And I thinlk a TAC reader hit the nail on the head regarding what Ryan is really up to when it comes to Trump. TAC Reader I’m guessing that Paul Ryan is playing both ends against the middle. He probably thinks that Trump will lose and knows that he’ll have to live with the (Crony) Republican Nomenklatura afterwards. So he’d rather not wear the residue of an all out endorsement just yet. However being ambiguous is probably a hedge until Trump’s actual chances… Read more »