But what is more interesting than Ryan’s decision to endorse is Ryan’s argument for Trump, which echoes most of the arguments one hears from the people in think tanks, journalism, or government who are most associated with the intellectual Right. Namely, Ryan argued that there was enough overlap between his legislative priorities and Trump’s views—or at least more overlap with Trump than with Clinton—that Trump is the best option. That’s very likely true. But if that’s the whole case for Trump, it’s not enough. Conservatives are articulating a misshapen view of the presidency in order to justify voting for Trump.
.. For Republican lobbyists and the conservative intelligentsia, Donald Trump’s utter lack of knowledge of the basics of public policy and his character defects that allow him to be easily manipulated present an opportunity
.. Trump is more likely than Hillary Clinton to sign the Ryan budget. And, yes, Donald Trump is more likely than Hillary Clinton to appoint good judges. Even if conservatives could trust Trump on these issues, it wouldn’t be reason enough to support him. Congress can check bad budgets. The Senate can check bad judges. But neither is able to really constrain the area where the president has the most discretion and the stakes are highest.
.. Putting someone impulsive, brutish, intemperate, megalomaniacal, and lacking any foundation in principle into such an office is just too dangerous. Emergencies at home and abroad arise in every presidency, and a president who grossly underreacts or grossly overreacts would be uniquely catastrophic. This is, in a way, the argument Hillary Clinton made yesterday in her foreign-policy speech in San Diego
.. Conservatives have five more months to rationalize Trump, to develop false hopes, to imagine false characteristics of the man. That’s a lot of time to forget the truth in front of our noses: that Hillary Clinton would be a terrible president, but Donald Trump is simply unfit for office.
Some Questions about What Republicans Who Endorse Trump Are Thinking
Ryan is known to ultimately always fall in line with what leadership wants, even when it goes against his free-market principles. And I am not sure if it is because he believes that the best way to achieve policy reforms is to have Republicans stay in power and that requires him to compromise on many things (if that’s the case, he is wrong, because all we have gotten is compromise and no reforms), or whether it is simply because that’s what he does to stay in power. Which one is it here?
.. Or is it that those who are falling in line believe that 1) Trump doesn’t really believe what he says and hence, the fears are overblown or 2) that once in power, Trump won’t be able to do what he wants either because Congress or our institutions will stop him or because he will suddenly decide to respect the rule of law in spite of what he has signaled on the campaign trail? How much can our institutions or Congress control President Trump if he decides to loosen libel laws or decides to ban Muslims from entering the country?
That Judge Attacked by Donald Trump? He’s Faced a Lot Worse
Experts in legal ethics say that seeking to discredit a judge is not a winning strategy and that the suggestion that Judge Curiel could not treat a case fairly because of his ethnicity raises questions about Mr. Trump’s ability to appoint judges.
Deborah L. Rhode, a professor at Stanford Law School and the founding director of the university’s Center on Ethics, said that calls for Judge Curiel to step down from a case because of his Mexican roots were akin to saying that Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, should never have been able to decide civil rights cases.
“If race were a disqualifying factor, nobody could preside over these cases,” Ms. Rhode said.
.. But, remembering when his friend, then a prosecutor, arrived at his house for a barbecue flanked by bodyguards, Mr. Vega noted the irony of Mr. Trump’s criticizing someone who had risked his life to slow the flow of drugs coming from Mexico into the United States — an issue that is dear to Mr. Trump.
“A lot of us have never been tested like that,” Mr. Vega said.
Paul Ryan’s cold embrace of Trump
The House speaker scolds Trump for racially based attacks on the judge overseeing Trump University lawsuits.
Less than 24 hours after Ryan announced that his “not ready” had become a “ready,” the House speaker ripped into the presumptive Republican nominee, making it clear he will not be Trump’s defender in chief.
Unprompted by WISN radio host Vicki McKenna, Ryan scolded Trump for his racially-based attacks against the federal judge in California overseeing a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump University.
“Look, the comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field for my mind,” Ryan said, after Trump argued that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates “an inherent conflict of interest.”
“It’s reasoning I don’t relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that. And so, he clearly says and does things I don’t agree with, and I’ve had to speak up from time to time when that has occurred, and I’ll continue to do that if it’s necessary. I hope it’s not.”
.. And Ryan’s eagerness to distance himself from Trump’s rhetoric on Friday spoke volumes, especially because his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, passed up a chance to rebuke Trump.
“Well, what I am willing to say is that Donald Trump is certainly a different kind of candidate,” McConnell told MSNBC on Friday when asked about Trump’s repeated tirades against Curiel.
.. After a high-profile meeting in Washington brokered by the RNC on May 12 and repeated phone calls, Ryan on Thursday declared that Trump offered the best chance of enacting conservative change after eight years of the GOP being blocked by President Barack Obama.
.. “Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.”
.. He’s agreed to let you be the rudder is what you’re saying?” McKenna asked in response. “He’s agreed to let the House Republican agenda, you know, that you guys be the keel of the ship?”
“That is the role we see ourselves playing,” Ryan said. “We can’t just blow another election. The Supreme Court, everything’s up for grabs. We can’t afford to blow another election.”