House Speaker Paul Ryan is backing Donald Trump but says other Republicans will have to make their own decisions because “it’s a very strange situation.”

“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an excerpt of an interview that will air Sunday.

“I get that this, this is a very strange situation. He’s a very unique nominee.”

The comments could be seen by some Republicans as permission not to endorse the party’s presidential candidate.

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois decried Trump on Thursday for being “too bigoted and racist” to earn Kirk’s support for the presidency.

Kirk says instead, he plans to write in David Petraeus, the former Army general and CIA director.

In the interview, Ryan said it wasn’t his place to divide the party by withholding an endorsement.

“I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party,” he said. “Because you know what I know that’ll do? That’ll definitely knock us out of the White House.”

Ryan endorsed Trump for president earlier this month after holding out for weeks. Despite that support, he hasn’t shied away from criticizing his party’s candidate.

Trump did not immediately respond to Ryan’s comments.

But Trump did denounce plans reported by the Washington Post Friday by some 30 GOP delegates to block him at the Republican convention next month.

In a statement Friday, he dismissed the plots against him.

“I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries,” Trump said. “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.”

He added, “People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to happen.”