WASHINGTON—Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are sitting down face-to-face for the first time, a week after Ryan stunned Republicans by refusing to back the mercurial billionaire for president.
The much-anticipated meeting Thursday morning will play out as polls suggest Republican voters are getting behind Trump, who effectively clinched the nomination last week. GOP lawmakers are increasingly calling for the party to end its embarrassing bout of infighting and unite to beat likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, and many want to see Ryan get on board.
Ahead of the meeting, Ryan insisted party unity was his goal, too.
“We come from different wings of the party. The goal here is to unify the various wings of the party around common principles, so that we can go forward to unify it,” Ryan told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday.
“I don’t really know him,” Ryan said of Trump, noting they’ve met in person only once, briefly, at a fundraiser in 2012 when Ryan was his party’s vice presidential nominee. “We just need to get to know each other.”
For his part Trump insisted defiantly that he doesn’t need the blessing of Ryan or other Republican leaders wary of the candidate.
“If we make a deal, that will be great,” Trump told Fox News Channel. “And if we don’t, we will trudge forward like I’ve been doing and winning all the time.”
