Republican Race Puts Donald Trump and Paul Ryan on Collision Course
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
nytimes.com
Republican National Convention, recent vice-presidential candidate and the highest elected Republican in the country, has one goal for this year: to form a conservative policy agenda for the Republican presidential nominee to embrace.
If that nominee is Donald J. Trump, that may be a waste of time.Panicked Republicans question whether Mr. Trump will be able to unite the Republican-controlled Congress that would normally be expected to promote and promulgate his agenda, an internal crisis nearly unheard-of in a generation of American politics. On nearly every significant issue, Mr. Trump stands in opposition to Republican orthodoxy and his party’s policy prescriptions — the very ideas that Mr. Ryan has done more than anyone else to form, refine or promote over the last decade.
If the billionaire New York businessman captures his party’s nomination — which seemed increasingly possible after a decisive victory in Nevada Tuesday night — he will become the titular head of the Republican Party, and lawmakers like Mr. Ryan would normally be expected to fall in line for the balance of the campaign. It is something that many in the party think may be impossible.
“You’re hitting on a very big problem, which is that Trump is not a Republican,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who recently dropped out of the race for the White House. “I have no idea how we reconcile a Donald Trump agenda with a Republican agenda. How do we write a platform?”
Mr. Ryan’s positions embody the modern institutional Republican Party. He has been a crucial promoter of free trade on Capitol Hill, which Mr. Trump opposes. Mr. Ryan supports taking money from Planned Parenthood — a central target of Republicans for years — while Mr. Trump has said the group provides needed care to women. Eminent domain, the right of the government to seize private property for public use? Despised by Republicans. Mr. Trump, who has used eminent domain to try to demolish an older woman’s home in Atlantic City, calls it “wonderful.”
Mr. Trump’s signature issue — deporting millions of undocumented workers — also stands in contrast to Mr. Ryan’s belief that his party needs to change to the current system to help some immigrants, and in the process attract them to the party. Not least, Mr. Trump said last week that he would be “a neutral guy” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Mr. Ryan holds the traditional Republican position of strong support for Israel.
</snip> Rest here: nytimes.com |
