Paul Ryan Endorses Donald Trump For President

House Speaker Paul Ryan officially hopped on board the Trump train Thursday, writing in a newspaper column that he plans to vote for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

The Wisconsin Republican penned an op-ed in his hometown Janesville Gazette saying he’s talked at “great length” with Donald Trump about conservative policy priorities including abortion and the role of government.

“The reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement,” Ryan said of Trump, adding, “That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.”

I’ll be voting for @realDonaldTrump this fall. I’m confident he will help turn the House GOP’s agenda into laws. http://www.gazettextra.com/20160602/paul_ryan_says_he_will_vote_for_donald_trump

— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) June 2, 2016

That marks somewhat of a turnaround for Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican in the nation, who, last month, said he was not yet ready to support Trump just days after the celebrity real estate developer became his party’s de facto standard bearer.

Indeed, Ryan acknowledged that fact Thursday, writing, “It’s no secret that (Trump) and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise.”

Only six months into his own tenure leading the House of Representatives, the speaker’s political calculus appears to rest on the idea that having a Republican in the White House will give his caucus the best chance of enacting their agenda.

From Ryan’s column:

One person who we know won’t support it is (Democratic frontrunner) 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.

Ryan’s announcement places him more firmly in Trump’s camp than other prominent Wisconsin Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who has said he will “support” but not “endorse” him, and Gov. Scott Walker, who says he will back whoever the eventual nominee is.

Nothing in Ryan’s column explicitly says he is endorsing Trump, but moments after the announcement came through, a spokesman for the speaker’s office weighed in on the semantics:

We’re not playing word games, feel free to call it an endorsement.

— Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) June 2, 2016

Ryan said he plans to unveil specific policy items in the coming month that he believes a President Trump would help usher into law.