House Speaker Paul Ryan is all aboard Team Trump, announcing he’ll be casting his vote for the billionaire businessman to be the country’s next president this November.
Ryan penned an op-ed piece in The Gazette, his Wisconsin hometown’s newspaper, saying why he’ll be casting his vote for Donald Trump later this year.
Ryan, who became House Speaker in October, has been a vocal critic of Trump during the presidential primary, but on Thursday, it seems he had changed his tune.
Ryan said Republicans are planning a “bold” agenda which would include a replacement for Obamacare, a better tax code and economic reform to “save the country.” As a result, the country should support a more conservative nominee to enact these policies.
The House Speaker’s lack of support for Trump, he said, stemmed not from outright dislike of Trump as a candidate, but because he hadn’t yet discussed “policies and basic principles” with the Republican frontrunner.
“As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall. And if we’re going to unite, it has to be over ideas,” he wrote.
Ryan said he discussed many pressing issues at length with Trump, like abortion and the potential Supreme Court nominees. The primary focus of the conversations between the two, says Ryan, has been the House policy agenda and reforms needed to “save the country.”
“Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives,” he said. “That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.
“It’s no secret that he and I have our differences,” he continued. “I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.”
The House Speaker slammed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying four years of her presidency would mean “four more years of liberal cronyism” and a government “more out for itself than the people it serves.”
Clinton, he says, won’t be the one to help enact the Republican agenda.
“Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix,” Ryan wrote.
“For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I—and my House colleagues—have invested so much in through the years,” he said. “It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.
"Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.”
View the full op-ed here.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
