WASHINGTON: Straining to mend their party after months of chaos, Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan declared themselves “totally committed” to working together after a fence-mending personal meeting on Thursday. Ryan praised Trump as “very warm and genuine,” and suggested that after initial hesitance he may well end up endorsing the GOP candidate for president.
“We will have policy disputes. There is no two ways about that. The question is, can we unify on the common core principles that make our party?” Ryan said. “And I’m very encouraged that the answer to that question is yes.”
Trump, who used the day to launch a robust charm offensive with members of Congress, broadcast his own enthusiasm on Twitter and on TV.
“I really think we had a great meeting today, and I think we agree on a lot of things and it’ll be a little process but it’ll come along. I’m pretty sure,” he said in an interview recorded for Fox News Channel’s Hannity.
The surprisingly fervent show of unity capped a remarkable week that began with Ryan, the GOP’s top elected office-holder and its 2012 vice presidential nominee, turning his back on his party’s presumptive presidential nominee just days after Trump had effectively clinched the nomination.
Ryan said at the time he was not ready to back Trump, who had succeeded in insulting women, Latinos, disabled people and many conservatives in the course of a brutal primary season. He also has alarmed the Republican establishment with proposals including deporting millions of immigrants and barring Muslims from the country.
Yet in the days since, many GOP lawmakers — and voters themselves — have made peace with the reality that Trump is their candidate and therefore their only hope of defeating likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The two issued a joint statement in which they pledged to work together to beat Clinton.
Trump also met with other House GOP leaders, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his top deputies, and senators were later full of praise and offers of help.
Sen. John Cornyn said he invited Trump to come to Texas and offered to help him with Latino voters.
“I was fortunate enough to win the Hispanic vote in 2014. I said I’d be glad to share with you my experience and observations because that’s an important part of the voters in 2016,” Cornyn said.
“I’ve always been impressed but I was really impressed today,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, adding they discussed the Supreme Court, an important issue for conservatives who’ve questioned whether they can trust Trump to appoint judges who would ratify their philosophy.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has called Trump a “nut job” and a “loser as a person,” softened his stance after speaking with the candidate by telephone Wednesday.
Graham, R-S.C., described the billionaire as funny and cordial and said he asked insightful questions about national security.
Trump, in a black SUV, slipped from one GOP power center to another on his mission made necessary by his outsider status in a city that embodies insiders.
About a dozen protesters who oppose Trump’s immigration positions demonstrated at the front of the Republican National Committee building where the men met. They chanted “Down, down with deportation. Up, up with liberation.”
The scene was similar outside Senate Republican campaign offices where Trump gathered later with McConnell and others. “The GOP is dead to our community,” said Deyanira Aldana, 21, a protester who is the child of Hispanic immigrants. “And Donald Trump is the final nail in that coffin.”