Ryan invites Trump to Capitol

[mystery-ak]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279025-trump-to-meet-with-ryan-house-gop-leaders

May 06, 2016, 02:26 pm
Ryan invites Trump to Capitol

By Cristina Marcos

 Paul Ryan
✔
‎@PRyan

I've invited @realDonaldTrump for a meeting with GOP leaders next week, and I look forward to the discussion.
1:24 PM - 6 May 2016

Donald Trump will meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee works to unify a fractious party around him.

Ryan invited Trump to Capitol Hill a day after he stunned Republicans by saying that he wasn’t ready to endorse Trump.

“Having both said we need to unify the party, Speaker Ryan has invited Donald Trump to meet with members of the House Republican leadership in Washington on Thursday morning to begin a discussion about the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November,” Ryan's political office said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Ryan on Thursday said Trump must unify the GOP and bring back Republicans who are vowing to never vote for the real estate mogul.

“At this point, I think he needs to do more to unify this party, to bring all wings of this Republican Party together and then to go forward to appeal to all Americans in every walk of life, every background, a majority of independents and discerning Democrats,” Ryan said on CNN.

“I think conservatives want to know: Does he share our values and our principles on limited government, the proper role of the executive, adherence to the Constitution?”

His decision to avoid an endorsement represented a sharp break from Republican

National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who both threw their support behind Trump before Ryan’s comments.

It also has sparked fierce criticism from some of Trump’s supporters, from former Speaker Newt Gingrich to FOX News host Sean Hannity.

Trump was measured in his response to Ryan, saying he was not yet ready to support the “Ryan agenda.” But his surrogates have been tougher. One spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, said Friday that Ryan wasn’t fit to be Speaker if he was not behind Trump.

Trump will meet separately with Ryan and Priebus at the RNC’s Capitol Hill headquarters on Thursday. He will not be addressing the entire House GOP conference as has been the norm with other presidential nominees, but he will have an additional meeting with House GOP leaders.

Trump’s campaign recently instituted weekly meetings with lawmakers whenever the House is in session to provide updates about strategy. But the gatherings over the last month or so have only included Trump’s top aides.

An appearance from the candidate himself is consequently sure to provoke a massive media circus outside the RNC’s headquarters.

In another jab at Ryan on Friday, Trump tweeted that he “won” the Republican Party.

“Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party,” Trump tweeted. “Wrong, I didn't inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!”

[libertybele]

I would love to be a fly on the wall.  Trump who has no clue as to the function of government is meeting with the Speaker of the House and other GOP leaders and the RNC (again).  So ... it could go a couple of ways ... the GOP could tell Trump either you are going to play our way or we will show you the highway; telling Trump who his VP pick will be ... or Trump can tell them they either endorse him or threaten them with a tremendous backlash from his supporters. Trump doesn't like to lose ... this is his second time up talking to the cartel ... my guess is so far the 'Art of the Deal' isn't going so well for Trump.

[r9etb]

“At this point, I think he needs to do more to unify this party, to bring all wings of this Republican Party together and then to go forward to appeal to all Americans in every walk of life, every background, a majority of independents and discerning Democrats,” Ryan said on CNN.

This is pretty extraordinary.  Ryan is basically saying that before he'll endorse Trump, Trump has to prove that he can change his spots. 

Obviously there's a self-interest aspect at work here.  Ryan (probably rightly) expects that a Trump candidacy will cost the Republicans their majority in Congress, and with it Ryan's own Speakership. 

And note, too, that Ryan is positioning (or, by this point, has already positioned) himself as the de facto head of the Republican Party -- the guy who was willing to stand up to Trump when it was politically difficult to do so.   

So what happens if Trump can't convince these guys that his candidacy doesn't spell disaster, in the form of a Democrat Congress working hand in hand with President Hillary?