WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday he will not be rushed into an endorsement of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, tamping down speculation that he would declare his support in short order.
“I haven’t made a decision,” Ryan told reporters summoned to his Capitol office suite. “I don’t have a timeline in my mind.”
Ryan spoke less than a day after a Bloomberg report, citing unnamed “confidants,” suggested a Trump endorsement is imminent. He dismissed the report, and said the process of reconciliation continues: “Our staffs talk virtually every day. We’re having good conversations.”
He also declined to wade into Trump’s latest controversy – his criticism of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the chair of the Republican Governors Association, on Tuesday: “Susana Martinez is a great governor,” he said, praising her tax-cutting record. “I think she’s a good governor, and I will leave it at that.”
Ryan has only grown more isolated within his party since his surprise declaration on May 5 – two days after Trump won the Indiana primary, clearing the Republican field – that he was “just not ready” to back the New York businessman, sharply criticizing Trump’s tone and populist agenda.
“We don’t always nominate a Lincoln and a Reagan every four years, but we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln- and Reagan-esque,” he said in a CNN interview.
Ryan and Trump met a week later, prompting no endorsement but instead a joint statement that emphasized “many important areas of common ground” and “additional discussions” to come.
Meanwhile, fellow party leaders have continued to move, if grudgingly, toward Trump. Ryan is now the only high-level Republican leader in either congressional chamber not to be openly supporting Trump.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the House Republican Conference chairwoman, announced last week she had voted for Trump in Washington’s Republican primary while maintaining reservations about comments “made in the past and on the campaign trail this year about women; people with disabilities; and those from different backgrounds.”
Last week, Ryan praised Trump’s decision to release a list of potential Supreme Court nominees but otherwise declined to comment on the prospects for reconciliation with Trump: “We’re making progress, but that’s all I’ve got to say at this point.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s sitdown, scheduled to preview a broad campaign agenda being assembled by House Republicans, a Ryan aide warned reporters there “won’t be any big political/2016 news made.”
“There’s no update and we’ve not told the Trump campaign to expect an endorsement,” spokeswoman AshLee Strong said. “He’s also not told anyone he regrets anything.”
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