Ryan no fan; Trump pivots to fundraising

House Speaker Paul Ryan (right) joins Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (left) and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at a campaign rally Thursday for Johnson in Burlington, Wis.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (right) joins Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (left) and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at a campaign rally Thursday for Johnson in Burlington, Wis.

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Paul Ryan is so far refusing to support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president, insisting Thursday that the businessman must do more to help unify the party.

"I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," Ryan said on CNN's The Lead. "And I hope to. And I want to, but I think what is required is that we unify this party."

In a statement, Trump responded that he isn't ready to support the Wisconsin Republican's agenda.

"Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people," Trump said. "They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!"

Ryan is the GOP's highest-ranking officeholder and, after Vice President Joe Biden, is next in line to the presidency.

Trump is the presumptive party nominee after winning in Indiana primaries Tuesday, prompting his two remaining Republican rivals -- U.S. Sen Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- to leave the race.

Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have offered their support for Trump.

But Ryan has balked.

"We will need a standard-bearer that can unify all Republicans, all conservatives, all wings of our party, and then go to the country with an appealing agenda," Ryan said. "And we have work to do on this front, and I think our nominee has to lead in that effort."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who is close to the speaker, reportedly got no advance warning before Ryan's comments were made public.

Ryan made clear that he won't be supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton and that he wants to come around to backing Trump. He acknowledged that Trump had "tapped into something in this country that was very powerful. And people are sending a message to Washington that we need to learn from and listen to."

"But at the same time, now that we have a presumptive nominee who is going to be our standard-bearer, I think it's very important that there's a demonstration that our standards will be beared," Ryan said.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an early Trump supporter, offered to play peacemaker.

"Donald's got work to do to bring people together," Christie said at an unrelated news conference in New Jersey. "I'm going to reach out to the speaker and see what his concerns are."

Trump is working on his full-fledged general election campaign, reaching out to party heavyweights and trying to repair his relationships with the Republican National Committee ahead of the party's national convention in July.

Ryan will serve as the convention's chairman, presiding over portions of the proceedings that will elevate Trump to the official status of nominee.

Shift to fundraising

Trump said his message has made the GOP "the hottest party around," and now his campaign is trying to convert that energy into dollars.

On Thursday, Trump named a finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, a private investor with ties to New York and Hollywood. Mnuchin "brings unprecedented experience and expertise" to the fundraising operation, the campaign said.

Mnuchin has never led a major political fundraising team and has a record of giving to Republicans and Democrats -- including Clinton during her 2008 presidential run.

Trump's decision to reconsider self-funding his presidential run comes as he has estimated that the general campaign would cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.

Trump could generate about $200 million by selling the remaining condominiums at a Park Avenue building he owns in New York, or by taking out loans against Trump Towers, valued at $490 million.

"Do I want to sell a couple of buildings and self-fund?" Trump said Wednesday on MSNBC when asked about continuing to self-finance his campaign. "I don't know that I want to do that necessarily."

Trump is also taking pains to reassure party leaders that he wants to help Republican Senate and House candidates, some of whom are openly worried that Trump at the top of the GOP ticket will be a drag on their campaigns.

He explained his decision to raise money as an attempt to unify the Republican Party.

"I'm not looking out for myself. I'm looking out for the party, so the party can compete in Senate races and House races," he said Tuesday on Fox News.

Trump also hopes to tap into the Republican National Committee's fundraising network, but he faces hurdles.

Charlie Spies, a veteran Republican operative with deep ties to party fundraisers, said traditional Republican donors "are sitting on their hands."

"The burden is on him to convince party supporters that he's a Republican and he's worth supporting," Spies said.

Jon Francis, a member of the Wilks family of Texas, said the fracking billionaires and Republican donors plan to sit out the presidential race after their candidate, Cruz, dropped out. Francis is treasurer of the super political action committee that brothers Farris and Dan Wilks and their wives set up last year with $15 million of their own money.

Trump "could have just as easily (and probably more legitimately) run as a Democrat," Francis said in an email. "He is certainly not a conservative. And, although one wouldn't have thought it possible, he appears to lie more than the current resident of the White House."

Robert Mercer, a New York hedge-fund manager, gave $13.5 million to his pro-Cruz group, Keep the Promise I, which focused on TV advertising.

"It's too early to discuss whether we will put any more money into the presidential race," Kellyanne Conway, the group's president, said in an interview. Nevertheless, she hinted that "there's a big difference between anti-Hillary and pro-Trump" messages.

Paul Singer, a New York hedge-fund billionaire who is among the most active Republican fundraisers, recently helped arrange an anti-Trump advertising campaign. Charles Koch, the Wichita, Kan., industrialist who oversees a powerful conservative donor network, has called Trump's suggestion of a travel ban on Muslims "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

Others -- including the previous Republican president -- said they won't help Trump.

"President Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign," Freddy Ford, a spokesman for George W. Bush, said when asked if Bush would help raise money for the presumptive nominee.

Running mate hunt

Trump plans to name a transition team and a vice presidential search committee. He said he will announce his running mate choice at the July convention, and that he might choose one of his 16 former opponents.

"I've gotten to be friends with a lot of those people, and I guess, perhaps enemies with a couple," he said Thursday on CNBC's Squawk Box. "I would say there's a good 40 percent chance."

Trump said that while it's "unlikely" he'll choose Kasich, he's looking for someone with legislative experience.

"I'm a business person, and I've got that covered," he said. "I think having somebody that can get legislation through and help me with that would be good -- rather than signing executive orders all day long."

Jeff Miller, an adviser to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, told CNN on Thursday that Perry wouldn't rule out being Trump's vice presidential pick. Miller said Perry "believes Trump is the nominee and will be supporting him over Clinton."

Trump praised Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, saying Sessions "would make a good anything." He also named several supporters he would consider for Cabinet positions, including Christie, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Trump discussed how he would spend his first 100 days in office, saying he'd focus on repealing regulations and renegotiating everything from trade deals to terms of the U.S. debt.

Calling himself "the king of debt," Trump said he would use his business skills to revisit terms of the more than $19 trillion in debt owed by the United States.

He said he would likely replace Janet Yellen as head of the Federal Reserve.

"People that I know have high regard for her, but she is not a Republican," Trump said. "When her time is up, I would most likely replace her because of the fact that I think it would be appropriate."

Trump did not signal any unhappiness with Yellen's policies. Yellen "has always been a low-interest-rate person, and I must be honest, I am a low-interest-rate person," Trump said. "If we raise interest rates and if the dollar starts getting too strong, we're going to have some major problems."

Yellen's four-year term as Fed leader ends on Feb. 3, 2018, but she could remain on the Fed's seven-member board if the next president decides not to nominate her for another term as chairman. Her 14-year term as a Fed board member does not end until Jan. 31, 2024.

Trump also said he would be willing to negotiate on his proposed overhaul of the tax code, potentially doing away with provisions that now disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

"The wealthy have done well -- I'm not complaining. It has been an unbelievable period of time for me," he said. "But the middle-class people haven't had a wage increase."

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday praised Trump, saying that anyone who could endure the "grueling" race to select their party's nominee "certainly deserves our respect."

But on Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., Cameron said, "I'm very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong, is wrong and will remain wrong."

Clinton reaches out

Clinton urged Democrats on Thursday to unite around her candidacy as a way of fending off Trump, telling black community leaders that her advantage over fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders far outpaces the deficit she faced in the 2008 primaries.

Campaigning ahead of California's June 7 primary, Clinton pointed to her lead of more than 3 million votes and nearly 300 pledged delegates over Sanders. When she was running against Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton said, they were "neck and neck" in the popular vote, but she eventually relented and campaigned hard to elect him president.

"He was about 60 or so pledged delegates ahead, a much, much smaller margin than what we see in this race. But I knew that he had won because it matters how many delegates you have, whether it's 60 or 300," Clinton told supporters at the California African American Museum.

Pointing to Trump as a "loose cannon we cannot afford," Clinton said that in 2008 she knew "that whatever differences we might have had in the campaign, they were nothing compared to the differences between us and the Republicans. Now if that were true in '08, that is true on steroids [today]."

Clinton was joined at the community-leaders meeting by Reps. Maxine Waters and Karen Bass, who represent the Los Angeles area in Congress and are helping her in the state's forthcoming primary.

"As Maxine has said, we've got to work hard and win big here in the California primary to get ready for the general election," Clinton said. "I will do everything I can to unify the party. I did that when I pulled out in '08, as some of you remember."

Sanders has vowed to barnstorm the state in hopes of winning a large trove of delegates and has shown few signs of stepping aside.

Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner, Steve Peoples, Jill Colvin, Andrew Taylor, Jonathan Lemire, Julie Bykowicz, Martin Crutsinger, Ken Thomas, Terry Spencer and Steve Peoples of The Associated Press; and by Bill Allison, Kevin Cirilli and Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 05/06/2016

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