This is a war with radical Islam. It’s not a war with Islam. Muslims are our partners. The vast, vast majority of Muslims in this country and around the world are moderate. They’re peaceful. They’re tolerant. And so they’re among our best allies, among our best resources in this fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
Paul Ryan’s Endorsement of Trump Misses the Point of the Presidency
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.
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.”
How Paul Ryan thinks about Donald Trump
I don’t think it’s just philosophy, I don’t think it’s just policy, and I don’t think it’s just temperament, but I think it’s all of those things together that makes Trump a pretty toxic mix and very much at odds with Ryan’s view of the world.
.. And then there’s the cruelty and the crudeness of Donald Trump — the mocking of reporters with physical disabilities, the mocking of POWs, the mocking of women for their looks, the stupid, infantile nicknames.
Then there’s the fact that Donald Trump is the shallowest person to ever run for public office when it comes to knowledge of public policy. The man doesn’t know anything and he has no interest in knowing anything, he has no intellectual curiosity. Someone like Paul Ryan whose life has been about the importance of ideas in politics, that’s got to be a problem.
.. It’s very important that there be a safe harbor for conservatives, particularly young conservatives now who look up and see Donald Trump and find him to be a repellent figure and wonder what happened to conservatism