0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Donald Trump’s blistering attacks on trade deals with Mexico and China, regardless of how simplistic and distorted, have placed House Speaker Paul Ryan in an awkward spot in part because of his own entrenched “free-trade” beliefs—and those of the Republican donor class he has so skillfully cultivated.But Ryan’s position is most precarious because he harbors ambitions for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, he wants to avoid alienating the supporters of Donald Trump, whom he has continued to endorse despite mounting criticism of his support for the New Yorker. To balance his own fiercely held convictions on “free trade” and austerity policies with Trump’s contradictory economic direction, Ryan has been going through a remarkable set of contortions recently.On August 9, during a visit to his economically declining southeastern Wisconsin district, Ryan made a carefully calculated concession to Trump’s anti-“free trade” position by reversing himself and coming out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership on vague technical grounds. (Around the same time, Trump made a long-delayed, pro forma endorsement of Ryan.)...http://prospect.org/article/ryan-seeks-restore-gop%E2%80%99s-elite-focused-agenda
Sort of oddly written.