House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has no regrets about how he has dealt with President Trump, claiming he has circumvented “tragedy” by privately providing the president with feedback rather than clashing with him in public.
“I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy,” Ryan said during an interview with the New York Times Magazine published Tuesday. “I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal.”
“No, I don’t want to do that,” Ryan continued when pressed on what he meant by “tragedy.” “That’s more than I usually say.”
Ryan, who announced in April he would not be seeking re-election in November, attributes his strategy to the belief that being too forceful or critical of Trump “boomerangs.”
“He goes in the other direction, so that’s not effective. The pissing match doesn’t work,” he said, adding he would adhere to the same strategy again if he had the opportunity. “I think some people would like me to start a civil war in our party and achieve nothing.”
Ryan and Trump have shared a tumultuous relationship. Ryan was slow to endorse Trump during the 2016 campaign, and was subjected to scathing assessments from Trump regarding his leadership of a fractious House Republican caucus.
The pair, however, seem to be on friendly terms in the wake of the passage of the GOP tax reform bill in December, though Ryan did voice his disapproval of Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
“The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” Ryan said in a statement.
[More: Paul Ryan: Russia meddled, but Trump’s comments aren’t treasonous]
