Hours after the Wisconsin congressman took over for John Boehner, Donald Trump lavished praise upon Paul Ryan as a potentially great speaker of the House during a campaign event Thursday.
In Sparks, Nev., Trump told a crowd of supporters Ryan has “tremendous potential,” but warned that Mitt Romney’s 2012 running mate has to “strengthen up” on illegal immigration going forward.
“Now we have a new man, Paul Ryan, I hope he’s going to work out,” Trump told the Nevada crowd. “He’s a nice person, I’ll tell you. He’s a nice person.”
“I think he’s got tremendous potential. He’s got to strengthen up on the illegal immigration though, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said. “He’s been weak on that — very weak. But he’s a good man, and he was consensus, and that’s important.”
The real estate mogul went on to say that he hopes Ryan works with both the Democrats and unifies the Republicans in the future. Trump also went on to criticize former Speaker John Boehner over his negotiation tactics on the budget, saying that he should not have ruled out a government shutdown from the outset of negotiations.
Trump’s comments piggy-backed on a tweet he sent out early Thursday, in which he said Ryan would do a “great job” going forward as speaker.
