Trump brings conflict with Ryan to Wisconsin

Donald Trump’s campaign appearance in Speaker Paul Ryan’s home state on Friday highlights divisions between the top figures in the Republican Party at a critical juncture in the presidential race.

Trump will hold an evening rally in Green Bay, Wis., about a three-hour drive north of Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, where the Speaker is campaigning to defeat a primary challenger who has been boosted by attention from Trump.

{mosads}Trump has pointedly refused to endorse Ryan ahead of his Tuesday primary, angering powerful Republicans like Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a Wisconsin native and close friend of Ryan’s who speaks regularly to both men.  

Trump called Ryan a “good guy” on Thursday but again declined to endorse the GOP leader.

Trump’s failure to do that has forced GOP leaders in the battleground state, including vulnerable incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, into a tight spot as they seek to express their support for the popular Speaker of the House without alienating the combustible GOP presidential nominee.

“Usually after a convention you see the party becoming more unified but things are moving in the opposite direction here,” said Marquette University polling director Charles Franklin. 

Republicans will be watching Trump’s rally closely to see what kind of reception he gets and whether he mentions — or what he says about — Ryan. 

Trump supporters booed Ryan at a rally in Janesville earlier this year before the Speaker had endorsed the GOP nominee. That happened again at a Trump rally in Maine on Thursday when the nominee mentioned Ryan’s name, although Trump interrupted the commotion to offer some kind words for Ryan.

“Paul Ryan’s a good guy actually,” Trump said.

The GOP nominee then launched into a story about how his running mate, Mike Pence, had asked for permission to publicly back Ryan and Trump had given him his blessing.
 
“I said, ‘Mike, you like him? Yes, go ahead and do it 100 percent,’” Trump said.

Still, the relationship between Trump and Ryan remains frosty.

Ryan kept their disagreements at the forefront in a radio interview early on Thursday in which he again called Trump out for fighting with the Muslim family of a slain U.S. soldier.

The Speaker reiterated his stance that his endorsement of Trump isn’t a “blank check” and mused about how the GOP nominee has been on a “strange run” since the convention.

“If I hear things that I think are wrong, I’m not going to sit by and say nothing, because I think I have a duty as a Republican leader to defend Republican principles and our party’s brand if I think they’re being distorted,” Ryan said.

Ryan has several closed-press constituent events in his district planned Friday along with a handful of local radio interviews. He will not attend Trump’s rally.

Top Republicans in the state — most of whom are close with Ryan but have also endorsed Trump — are also staying away from Trump’s rally in Green Bay.

Gov. Scott Walker — who appeared with Pence at a rally last month — will be surveying damage from a recent extreme weather event in the state with Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), a close Ryan ally.

Walker’s office said he’d be open to campaigning with Trump in the future. Duffy is still supporting the GOP nominee but is fuming over the slight to Ryan.

“[Trump] did the same thing in the Republican primary — he went after Scott Walker,” Duffy said Thursday on CNN. 

“Scott Walker is loved in our state because of his conservative viewpoints and policies that he’s implemented,” Duffy continued. “So, you go after a Scott Walker and a Paul Ryan, you don’t add to the number of voters that you need to win Wisconsin, you detract from them. Big mistake. Paul Ryan will win, and we’ll get beyond this after next Tuesday. I don’t think it’s very smart on the front of Donald Trump.”

Another close Ryan ally, Rep. Reid Ribble, whose district Trump will be campaigning in on Friday, will also not attend. Ribble’s office did not say why, but the retiring congressman has been sharply critical of Trump.

And Johnson’s campaign said the senator had preexisting commitments that would keep him away from Green Bay but that he would be open to appearing with Trump in the future.

Still, Johnson made his allegiances clear.

“Paul Ryan is a man of intelligence, integrity, ideas, and courage,” he said in a statement to The Hill. “I fully support him.”

The RNC did not respond to questions about where Priebus would be on Friday. The GOP chairman is furious with Trump over the Ryan flap.

It appears the biggest name to be on hand for Trump’s rally is state Sen. Frank Lasee, who is in a three-way primary race to replace Ribble.

However, Trump could significantly escalate the fight with Ryan by inviting Ryan’s primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, an unabashed Trump supporter, to the rally.

The Trump and Nehlen campaigns are mum on whether he has been invited or will attend on his own.

Handicappers believe Ryan will win the primary against Nehlen in a runaway.

Ryan is hugely popular among Janesville Republicans, and analysts note that he’s kept close ties to his home district.

“Ryan is going to destroy Nehlen,” said one GOP operative in the state who does not work for Ryan or Nehlen. “These are the last gasps of a dying candidate who has been struggling for traction for months and is just finally getting some media attention.”

Many Republicans in Wisconsin are angry at Trump for creating a media spectacle around Nehlen’s long-shot campaign.

The national media has descended on Janesville after Trump praised the candidate on Twitter and later declined to back Ryan.

Right-wing media figures like Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin have campaigned for Nehlen and sought to turn the primary election into a proxy war between Trump’s fiercest supporters and those who have only tepidly embraced the nominee.

Wisconsin Republicans and analysts interviewed by The Hill see it as a quixotic quest fueled by outsized media attention rather than a movement with real muscle behind it.

“If Trump hadn’t acted like a petulant 5-year-old and tweeted about Nehlen then there is no story here,” said GOP operative Brandon Scholtz, a Walker ally. “It’s just Nehlen making wild claims and Trumpkins trying to draw attention to themselves because they can. This is such an overblown story.”

The Nehlen campaign pushed back at that characterization in a statement.

“Americans from across the nation are sending the clear message to Speaker Ryan that his job-killing deals with Asia, wage-busting open-border policy, and constant alignment with Hillary Clinton against the Republican Party in the presidential election are no longer acceptable,” the campaign said.