Paul Ryan's GOP swept away by a Trumpian revolution he could neither contain nor control
By Michael Scherer April 11 at 6:04 PM
As he announced his exit from public life, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan tried hard to show appreciation for the man who took the Republican Party from his grasp and transformed it into something else.
“I’m grateful to the president,” Ryan (R-Wis.) said four times in two minutes, with slight grammatical variations, in a news conference Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, noting that Donald Trump’s 2016 victory gave Republicans the power to cut taxes and increase military spending. But the praise did little to remove the shadow Trump casts over the end of Ryan’s career now that he has decided to forgo a campaign for reelection. The Trumpian revolution, which Ryan had long resisted, appeared to have claimed another victory, dispatching another occasional critic and reaffirming the president’s growing hold on a shrinking electoral coalition.
“Speaker Ryan is an embodiment of a particular kind of optimistic, pro-growth, pro-free market inclusive conservatism,” said Michael Steel, a former top adviser to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “And that is a very different feel and tone of where the party is going under President Trump.”
Ryan’s decision to abruptly throw in the towel, about six months before the midterms, is likely to only further Trump’s control of the party. Republican strategists worry it will also make it harder for the GOP to hold onto the House, a prospect that seems less likely after a recent Democratic victory in a special election outside of Pittsburgh.
Not only are donors making clear they are more skeptical of the effort to retain the House, but the sudden departure of Ryan suggests the Republican ideological tent will continue to shrink. Including Ryan and Rep. Dennis A. Ross (R-Fla.), who also announced his retirement Wednesday, 46 Republicans have retired or said they will not run for reelection, and those ranks are likely to grow further in the coming weeks.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/paul-ryans-gop-swept-away-by-a-trumpian-revolution-he-could-neither-contain-nor-control/2018/04/11/d5d313a2-3d92-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html
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