(The Hill) – Although Donald Trump won the nomination “fair and square,” the GOP is not his party, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday on a local radio show.
“It is no one person’s party. Donald Trump won the primary fair and square,” Ryan said during an interview on WTMJ in Milwaukee after conservative host Charlie Sykes asked if the GOP was now Trump’s party.
“As a party leader, as the highest elected official in the party, I have always felt a duty to the process, to democracy, to the primary voter who must be respected. And he won this fair and square,” Ryan added. “But no one person controls this party. This is a bottom-up, organic grassroots party based on conservative principles.”
Trump and Ryan have had a contentious relationship all year. The Speaker condemned the billionaire’s proposed Muslim ban as unconstitutional and said his attacks on a Mexican-American judge were the “textbook definition” of racism.
