Key Republican leaders met Donald Trump’s new status as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee with silence on Wednesday, and refrained from congratulatory statements or tweets about Trump’s longshot victory.
“Not today, thanks,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, said when asked for a comment about Trump.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted about email privacy and “Star Wars” Day, but not a word about Trump.
It’s still possible Trump won’t secure the 1,237 delegates needed to win outright, but it is far more likely he will do so by June, especially since he’s now the only candidate left.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted as much Tuesday night, after Trump’s win in Indiana’s GOP primary.
“@realDonaldTrump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton,” Priebus tweeted.
Republican leaders in Congress will likely have a difficult time accepting Trump’s apparent victory. Both Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have condemned comments made by Trump and have suggested Trump’s positions, including a proposal to ban new Muslim entrants, are not acceptable to the GOP.
“This is not who we are as a party or a country,” Ryan told Republicans in a closed-door meeting late last year after Trump proposed the Muslim ban.
Both Ryan and McConnell have recent weeks pledged to support the GOP nominee, even if it’s Trump. “He’s been saying that since at least March,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart told the Washington Examiner.
But McConnell has also privately told Republican senators running for re-election that the Senate GOP would drop Trump “like a hot rock” if he receives the nomination, in order to protect vulnerable seats.
Regardless, Ryan will soon have to start working closely with Trump because his role as House Speaker requires that he serve as chairman of the Republican National Convention, which will presumably elect Trump to the top of the ticket in late July.
While Republican leaders were mostly silent, a smattering of support from GOP lawmakers emerged on Wednesday.
“I believe in the good sense of the American people, the voters, and the voters of the Republican party, and they have overwhelmingly spoken,” House Administration Committee Chairwoman Candice Miller, R-Mich., said in a statement. “I am totally and completely looking forward to President Trump. As our presumptive nominee, I am confident in his candidacy and give him my full support.”
