Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

JANESVILLE, Wis.— Even Donald Trump appeared to be surprised by the reaction he got when he mentioned this Wisconsin city’s most famous resident.

At one point during his hour-long speech in a jam packed hotel conference center on Tuesday, GOP front-runner Donald Trump gave a shout out to House Speaker Paul Ryan, a longtime resident of this small Wisconsin city.

“Your new speaker, how do you like Paul Ryan, how you like him?” Trump asked the crowd.

The response: a chorus of boos.

“Wow. I was told, ‘Be nice to Paul Ryan…’” Trump said. “Really?”

“I am very surprised at this statement,” Trump added. “Are you all Republicans? Are you mostly conservatives?"

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The jarring response to Ryan in his own backyard comes a week after the speaker gave a speech in Washington criticizing the harsh tone of the 2016 campaign and suggested it was “scaring” voters.

Ryan didn’t mention Trump by name in his speech, but the reference to the bruising fight between Trump and his chief rival for the GOP nomination, Ted Cruz, was unmistakable.

Trump, for his part, told the Janesville crowd that Ryan’s “a nice guy.”