The usual lying from the Donald Trump campaign continues. On Wednesday, ABC News reported, “House Speaker Paul Ryan will be endorsing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, senior-level Trump campaign sources told ABC News today. It’s unclear when the endorsement will take place, but Ryan has a briefing on the House GOP agenda scheduled later today in Washington.”
Yet AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokeswoman, responded, “There’s no update and we’ve not told the Trump campaign to expect an endorsement. He’s also not told anyone he regrets anything,” apparently referring to Ryan’s previous reluctance to endorse Trump. On May 5, Ryan told CNN he wasn’t ready to endorse Trump. One week later Trump and Ryan met in Washington, but Ryan still deferred endorsing Trump.
A likely source for the rumor that Ryan would endorse Trump appears to be Trump’s aide Paul Manafort, who had told Republican lawmakers Thursday that he expected Ryan to endorse Trump this week; by starting the rumor, the pressure on Ryan to endorse would increase. Manafort bragged to the lawmakers that Ryan’s endorsement would force Trump holdouts to fall in line.
Earlier this month The Hill listed significant differences on policy separating Ryan and Trump, including Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the country; Trump’s favoring of higher taxes on the wealthy, while Ryan favors cutting taxes across the board; Trump’s opposition to free trade; Trump’s approval of easing restrictions with Cuba; Trump’s support of Planned Parenthood; Trump’s support of raising the minimum wage; Trump’s support of eminent domain to commander private property, and Trump’s refusal to cut entitlements.
“There’s no update and we’ve not told the Trump campaign to expect an endorsement.”
Whoops.
The initial question is exactly how many of Trump’s positions he will have to change to elicit Ryan’s endorsement. Since Trump is infamously duplicitous about taking a firm stand on any issue, the next question will be, how will Ryan explain an endorsement he will, in the end, be likely to give?
