Donald Trump offered an olive branch to House Speaker Paul Ryan Tuesday night, by saying he wants Ryan to remain as chairman of the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland.
“I’d love frankly for him to stay and be chairman,” Trump said during an interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night.
Trump and Ryan are scheduled to meet on Thursday. Last week, Ryan said he was not ready to endorse Trump, the presumed GOP nominee and Trump fired back, saying he wasn’t ready to endorse Ryan’s congressional agenda.
Then on Monday, Ryan said he would step down as convention chairman if Trump asked.
“He’s the nominee. I’ll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention,” Ryan said.
“I have a lot of respect for Paul and I think we’re gonna have a very good meeting I hope,” Trump told O’Reilly when asked what his opening statement to the Wisconsin Republican will be. Trump said he will also note that no other GOP candidate has gotten as many votes in a primary in history as he has, and said he will repeat his call for party unity.
“I would like to see unity in the party, I believe we’ll have great unity in the party,” he explained. “I think we’re going to do better if we’re unified.”
