The much maligned Speaker of the House Paul Ryan sent out a tweet earlier today, informing his followers that he will indeed be voting for the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump come this November. He tweeted out a few hours ago, (@PRyan) “I’ll be voting for @realDonaldTrump this fall. I’m confident he will help turn the House GOP’s agenda into laws”. 2 Jun, 2016.
With the push of a send button on a social media platform, Republican skeptics and hopeful Democrats throughout the country were silenced, as Donald Trump was able to land another Republican from the establishment on his side-something media pundits and Never Trump conservatives have doubted Trump could pull off.
This however, is perhaps the most monumental pledge Trump has received to this point, given Ryan’s relevancy to the current administration, his hardheadedness in the past, and his refusal to initially accept Trump as the Republican nominee.
In early May, Ryan was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would be endorsing Trump now that he is all but the presumptive Republican nominee, “Now you have a presumptive nominee in Donald Trump, will you support him?” Tapper asked Ryan, to which Ryan responded, “Well uh, to be perfectly candid with you Jake, I’m just not ready to do that at this point, I’m not there right now”.
Ryan’s response and refusal to endorse the man millions of Republicans had voted for, was met with much criticism from fellow Republicans throughout Washington D.C., as Ryan continued to talk of unifying the Republican party while becoming the face of the Never Trump Republican establishment. His words certainly seemed to contradict his actions, something that rubbed Trump supporters and fellow Republicans who endorsed Trump the wrong way. Since Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out of the Republican race, Ryan has had several public opportunities to back Mr. Trump, but had been unwilling to do so up until today.
In discussing his decision to finally support Trump, Ryan released a statement that explained speaking with Trump on numerous occasions helped ease his concerns, and increased his confidence that Mr. Trump is the right man to the lead this country. He also spoke of how Trump can help push Ryan’s “confident America” policy he’s been working on since he first became Speaker of the House. “Through these conversations, I feel confident he (Trump) would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. Thats why i’ll be voting for him in the fall”.
Despite Ryan’s endorsement of Donald Trump, there is still much work to be done between the two-as their stance on immigration and other major issues strongly differ. Ryan however, believes the two have a lot more in common on ideas to put this country back in the right direction than they do disagreements, “But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement,” Ryan explained in his statement.
Ryan’s decision to finally endorse Trump after more then a month of refusing to do so, symbolizes Trump’s negotiation skills, and ability to bring people together, two traits of Mr. Trump’s that are most certainly needed to be an effective president.
It looks as if Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney dinner dates have gone down to a party of two with Ryan’s endorsement. I don’t see those two warming up to Trump however, and I don’t think Trump and his staff are too concerned about it at this point, as it has become join Trump’s side, or tell the American voters they don’t know whats in their best interest, something that seems to be political suicide at this point.
As for Ryan, the bottom line is- a current major player in the Republican party just endorsed Donald Trump after weeks of defiantly refusing to do so. This cannot be downplayed- this is significant.
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