Republicans Stunned As Trump Stabs Both Paul Ryan and John McCain in the Back

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:18 pm

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So much for that “Republican unity” some of the press has been imagining since the RNC. This is, after all, Donald Trump we are dealing with. There is no low too low.

And so just days after Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) humiliated himself by appearing to endorse Donald Trump by speaking at the very gruesome RNC, Trump is stabbing him in the back by refusing to endorse Ryan in his primary. Trump even went so far as to praise his opponent.

Washington Post’s Philip Rucker reported, “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is refusing to back House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in his upcoming primary election, saying in an interview Tuesday that he is ‘not quite there yet’ in endorsing his party’s top-ranking elected official.”

In fact, “Trump praised the House speaker’s underdog opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running ‘a very good campaign.’ Trump said that Ryan has sought his endorsement, but that as of now he is only ‘giving it very serious consideration.'”

Oh.

Aside from the issue of backstabbing, what we are witnessing here is a person who doesn’t know the first thing about diplomacy and that matters because it’s a major part of the job he’s running for.

Sure, Paul Ryan only mentioned Donald Trump once in his RNC speech, and as Jason Easley wrote in these pages, “Paul Ryan’s speech wasn’t just the oratorical version of NyQuil, but it was also one big attempt to revise history in his party’s favor – and it failed big time.”

But still. There’s this thing called building a coalition and building political power. Maybe no one has told Donald Trump that politics doesn’t work like the building trades. For a builder, Trump is quite the demolition expert. But the goal of an effective president is to build enough political will that he or she can actually implement some of their agenda.

Additionally, Trump stabbed Republican Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in the back — again. It wasn’t enough to say the man wasn’t a hero. Now Trump won’t support McCain in his Arizona primary. Rucker wrote, “Trump also said he was not supporting Sen. John McCain in his primary in Arizona, and he singled out Sen. Kelly Ayotte as a weak and disloyal leader in New Hampshire, a state whose presidential primary Trump won handily.”

Ouch. This is a stunning way for the Party’s standard bearer to treat the Speaker and the 2008 Republican Presidential nominee.

Donald Trump is a Republican wrecking ball. He has no idea what he’s doing and he stops at nothing to humiliate members of his own party.

There is no unity under a party leader like Donald Trump. There are only Donald Trump and his very large, relentlessly needy ego. He will let any petty grievance justify his destruction of people in his own party, including the Speaker who already humiliated himself by even speaking at the RNC ostensibly on Donald Trump’s behalf.

Maybe this is the out for Speaker Ryan and others to finally claim a backbone and refuse to continue endorsing this terrifying infant. It was obvious to all but Republicans that Trump would behave like this. He will also do this in the White House should he win access, and Republicans really need to start facing that fact instead of burying their heads in the sands of fantasy.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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