BREAKING: Paul Ryan Endorses Donald Trump

After weeks of dancing around the issue, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has endorsed Donald Trump for president. In an op-ed for the Janesville Extra, the House Speaker noted his reservations about the billionaire real estate magnate concerning policy and offering a clear direction for the future of the country. Moreover, would he trust the GOP nominee to sign Republican legislation into law? Ryan knows Clinton won’t—and after discussions with Trump, some of which has been publicized heavily in the media over the past couple of weeks, he’s confident Trump can work with Congress to enact a pro-growth agenda for America:

The concept from the start was simple: If we had a Republican president ready to sign bills into law, what would we do?

It will be a positive, optimistic vision for a more confident America.

It’s short of all that’s required to save the country, but the goal was to focus on issues that unite Republicans. It’s a bold agenda but one that can bring together all wings of the Republican Party as well as appeal to most Americans.

One person who we know won’t support it is Hillary Clinton. A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix.

To enact these ideas, we need a Republican president willing to sign them into law. That’s why, when he sealed the nomination, I could not offer my support for Donald Trump before discussing policies and basic principles.

As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall. And if we’re going to unite, it has to be over ideas.

Donald Trump and I have talked at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life. The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.

But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue. We’ve talked about the common ground this agenda can represent. We’ve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas. We’ve talked about how important these reforms are to saving our country. And we’ve talked about how, by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.

[…]

For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I—and my House colleagues—have invested so much in through the years. It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.

Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.

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It’s a call for unity. With the House looking like it’s more and more in play for 2016, Ryan is probably thinking that the jig is up regarding trying to remain on the sidelines as the Republican Party coalesces around Trump. And with Trump as the nominee, there’s no point trying to look distant, especially when Ryan probably agrees with Trump on the vast majority of issues. The primary is over, we have a candidate (one that might not have been our first choice), and it’s time to defeat Hillary Clinton. Lastly, a Trump White House working with a Republican Congress (if it we can hold the line) is the better option than a new Clinton presidency. That’s not a debate. With the Democrats still fracturing over their divisive primary, there could be a window for the GOP to unite and paint Clinton as the untrustworthy and dishonest candidate that she is. That would be a huge advantage going into the general election phase of 2016, along with adding another item to Hillary’s checklist regarding uniting the Democratic Party, persuading young voters, especially young women, and trying to prove to voters she isn’t crooked; quite the task for an awful campaigner.