GOP Leaders Learning to Live With Their Nominee
Donald Trump’s much anticipated meeting with GOP officials in Washington Thursday attracted a circus: hordes of reporters, dozens of protesters (including one in a giant papier-mache Trump head), a motorcade of black Suburbans, and cable news crews, staked out in alleys, hoping to snag someone important.
Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t exactly embrace each other Thursday. But by the time the billionaire businessman boarded his private plane that afternoon to return to New York, there appeared to be some consensus among congressional leaders and their rank and file that they and Trump will have to compromise.
“Their destinies are intertwined, like it or not,” said former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis.
“You can't separate the congressional party from the presidency. Dissident parties just don't work. It will just crater,” he said, noting the pressure on Ryan from his members to make things work. “I think they’re going to be on the same page at the end of the day. And you can bet these people are going to be marching to the same tune.”
Already, frigid relations have begun to thaw. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke with the presumptive nominee for nearly 20 minutes on the phone this week about ISIS and other foreign policy issues. “I think it’s good for Mr. Trump to reach out to people within the party who have been critical to seek their counsel and advice,” said Graham, who once compared the choice between Trump or Ted Cruz for GOP nominee to being shot or poisoned. “I think it shows leadership. That’s a good thing."
Still, Graham told reporters he remains opposed to supporting Trump in the fall.
Top of mind for Republican leaders and officials is Trump’s impact across the ballot, and whether the nominee can uphold traditional fundraising and campaign duties in helping vulnerable party members in states like Ohio.
“I think we’ll all get there,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, GOP whip and former chair of the Senate’s campaign arm. “The fact of the matter is he’s the presumptive nominee, he will be the nominee, and unless you support Hillary Clinton, which I don’t, then you’re going to be supporting the nominee."
While Trump met with several Republican leaders in the House and Senate, as well as with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, the focus of the day was on Ryan, who said last week he was not ready to support the presumptive nominee.
The two men are far apart on style and approach. Trump is at odds on policy issues Ryan has long championed as fundamental conservative causes -- from trade and entitlement reforms to policies on immigration and foreign affairs to religious freedoms and executive power. Trump’s unpredictability has created anxiety among GOP leaders hoping to offer a consistent and conservative vision for voters in the general election.
But the two politicians, one the nation’s top elected Republican and the other the de facto standard-bearer of the party, know they have to work together if they stand a chance of winning in November.
Ryan’s interest lies in preserving the Republican agenda he has worked so hard to shape and ensuring a nurturing environment for his members. That means getting Trump on the same page when it comes to party vision and philosophy. Trump believes his rhetoric and ideas have earned a mandate from the voters with animosity toward Washington. Their interests intersect electorally and financially, and as much as the party has tried to reject Trump and Trump has tried to dismiss the party, they will need each other in the fall.
“While it might be tempting for Ryan, in his heart, to let Trump go down, he may be seeing that Trump would take down a lot of House candidates with him,” said California Republican Dan Schnur, a former communications aide to Arizona Sen. John McCain and former California Gov. Pete Wilson. “If you're Trump, as much as you'd like to treat Paul Ryan like a Midwestern version of Jeb Bush, you can't afford to do anything that would keep the party from coming together behind you.”
Ryan and Trump met privately with Priebus Thursday morning, followed by a meeting that included the rest of the House GOP leadership team. House Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers has invited Trump to address the full Republican House at a later date.
Ryan and Trump issued a joint statement following their meeting, saying they were confident they could unify and are “committed to working together to achieve that goal.”
Yet Ryan, the nation’s top elected Republican, was asked in a press conference afterward why he has not yet endorsed his party’s presumptive nominee, and he demurred.
“The process of unifying the Republican Party, which just finished a primary about a week ago -- perhaps one of the most divisive primaries in memory -- takes some time," Ryan said. “... I don't want us to have a fake unification process here. I want to make sure that we really, truly understand each other and that we are committed to the conservative principles that make the Republican Party, that built this country. And again, I'm very encouraged.”
Still, many Republicans expect that Ryan will eventually come around to supporting Trump. New York Rep. Chris Collins, one of Trump’s earliest endorsers on the Hill, said he met with Ryan earlier this week, and the speaker suggested to him that the issue wasn’t policy differences or trying to get concessions out of Trump before offering his support.
“I read into that a level of confidence that it won’t be today, but it will a week, or two, or three,” Collins told reporters outside the Ryan and Trump meeting. “This is Mr. Ryan being very deliberative in his decision-making. Some of us are a little more impulsive, but as speaker, I respect that in Mr. Ryan, and I’m sure he’ll be solidly behind Mr. Trump."
Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, one of the most conservative members in the House, said he thinks it’s very likely Ryan will support Trump in the end. And Franks said he supports the Republican nominee, though his endorsement was rather tepid. He pointed out that many of Trump’s positions are antithetical to Republican orthodoxy, but said he hoped it reflects a lack of understanding on Trump’s part.
Asked whether he was comfortable Trump wouldn’t abandon conservative policy once in the White House, Franks said he wasn’t sure, but that he was confident Clinton’s liberal positions wouldn’t change, which made his decision an “easy equation.”
Many have questioned whether Trump even needs the support of Ryan or other Republicans on Capitol Hill, but Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said he thinks their support will be critical for Trump in convincing their constituents to cast their ballots for him.
Across the Capitol, Trump met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republican senators, including two who are up for re-election this year, Ohio's Rob Portman and Missouri's Roy Blunt.
Senators in the meeting said they discussed policy, tone and how they will be able to unify the party in the fall. Most described the meeting as positive and constructive and said Trump was thoughtful and listened to their considerations.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of Republicans’ Senate campaign committee, said after the meeting he felt “even better” about Trump’s candidacy, according to Talking Points Memo.
Still, there is much work to be done. Longtime GOP pollster David Winston said GOP leaders and Trump should have a shared interest in building winning coalitions in their members’ districts and states. “The thing Trump has got to address here is he's got these huge unfavorable [ratings], and to some degree, what is his plan to lower those, which would obviously increase the comfort level -- that in fact he can build a coalition,” he said.
Many Republicans are still concerned that Trump will continue to act unpredictably or make controversial statements that could doom them in November. Ryan and GOP leaders would likely be held to account in each instance, which could create further turmoil within the party. That potential situation concerns some Republicans who aren’t warming to Trump and fear he would break any alliances he’d formed.
Trump has said in recent interviews that he won’t change and believes his style and approach have gotten him this far. “You win the pennant and now you’re in the World Series — you gonna change?” Trump told the New York Times. “People like the way I’m doing.”
For now, Ryan is still trying to feel Trump out, giving his members time to digest recent events. But time is short. The GOP convention convenes in just six weeks.
Ryan is trying to come to grips with that. "This is our first meeting. I was very encouraged with this meeting, but this is a process. It takes a little time. You don't put it together in 45 minutes."
