JANESVILLE, Wis.—House Speaker Paul Ryan’s endorsement of Donald Trump comes with caveats.
Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking Republican, isn’t promising to help his party’s presumptive presidential nominee on the campaign trail. He’s not publicly backing any of Trump’s policies. And even as he vows to vote for the brash billionaire, Ryan is reminding voters he doesn’t support Trump’s confrontational style.
“It is my hope the campaign improves its tone as we go forward and it’s all a campaign we can be proud of,” Ryan told The Associated Press.
The Wisconsin Republican’s endorsement may have ended a weekslong holdout that exposed deep divisions within the GOP. But his comments during an exclusive interview with the AP exposed lingering reservations, suggesting that Ryan’s shift was driven more by a deep desire to defeat leading Democrat Hillary Clinton than to support Trump.
“It’s very clear to me that Hillary is in no certain way going to be advancing our principles and policies. She’s promising another Obama term,” Ryan said Thursday. “It’s also become clear to me through my conversations that Donald Trump is somebody I know is comfortable with these principles and general policies.”
Ryan couched his endorsement around what he called an increased comfort level with Trump’s approach toward Ryan’s policy priorities, including halting overreach of the president and executive branch. Yet he offered no public support for Trump’s policy priorities in the AP interview. He also insisted he made no “deals” with the New York businessman in exchange for his endorsement.
