If there was any doubt that Paul Ryan’s endorsement of Donald Trump was less than full-throated, he crushed it on Friday.

Less than 24 hours after Ryan announced that his “not ready” had become a “ready,” the House speaker ripped into the presumptive Republican nominee, making it clear he will not be Trump’s defender in chief.


Unprompted by WISN radio host Vicki McKenna, Ryan scolded Trump for his racially-based attacks against the federal judge in California overseeing a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump University.

“Look, the comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field for my mind,” Ryan said, after Trump argued that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates "an inherent conflict of interest.”

“It’s reasoning I don’t relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that. And so, he clearly says and does things I don’t agree with, and I’ve had to speak up from time to time when that has occurred, and I’ll continue to do that if it’s necessary. I hope it’s not.”

This is Ryan’s new fate — one day embracing the man taking a blowtorch to the Republican Party, the next day denouncing him.

Ryan’s ambivalence practically leapt off the page of The Janesville Gazette on Thursday. He offered only tepid compliments to Trump and chose not to explain exactly what had changed since May 5, when Ryan went on CNN to declare that he was “just not ready” to endorse Trump.

His aides also refused to answer whether Ryan will fundraise alongside Trump or appear on the campaign trail for him.

And Ryan’s eagerness to distance himself from Trump’s rhetoric on Friday spoke volumes, especially because his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, passed up a chance to rebuke Trump.

"Well, what I am willing to say is that Donald Trump is certainly a different kind of candidate," McConnell told MSNBC on Friday when asked about Trump’s repeated tirades against Curiel.

Ryan for months has been walking a tightrope when it comes to Trump. During the winter and spring, the speaker chided Trump after he refused to immediately disavow the backing of white supremacist David Duke and when the real-estate tycoon proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States.

The tension came to a head when Ryan refused to fall in line once the Republican National Committee declared Trump the presumptive nominee.

Still, the House speaker could hold out for only so long. After a high-profile meeting in Washington brokered by the RNC on May 12 and repeated phone calls, Ryan on Thursday declared that Trump offered the best chance of enacting conservative change after eight years of the GOP being blocked by President Barack Obama.

“For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I — and my House colleagues — have invested so much in through the years. It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead,” Ryan wrote.

“Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.”

On Friday, he made sure to mix his rebuke of Trump with more optimistic notes, saying that Trump has offered him assurances that he would be a “partner” in implementing a set of conservative policy proposals that Ryan will start rolling out next Tuesday.

“We believe we in the House can add a keel and a rudder to this ship, and give it substance and give it direction, from the Constitution, to national security, to reforming welfare, to cleaning up the tax code, to replacing Obamacare. These are the kinds of things that we’re going to be rolling out in the next few weeks,” Ryan said in the radio interview. “My point in basically not supporting him from the get-go was to make sure that we had someone working with us on this agenda and not against us.”

“He’s agreed to let you be the rudder is what you’re saying?” McKenna asked in response. “He’s agreed to let the House Republican agenda, you know, that you guys be the keel of the ship?”

“That is the role we see ourselves playing,” Ryan said. “We can’t just blow another election. The Supreme Court, everything’s up for grabs. We can’t afford to blow another election.”

