WASHINGTON — Donald Trump declared Wednesday he doesn’t need support from House Speaker Paul Ryan or other leery Republican leaders, brushing off his Capitol Hill critics even as he prepared to sit down with them. His defiant message came amid
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump declared Wednesday he doesn’t need support from House Speaker Paul Ryan or other leery Republican leaders, brushing off his Capitol Hill critics even as he prepared to sit down with them. His defiant message came amid new signs that he might be right, with GOP voters becoming more willing to embrace the New York billionaire.
Their public differences are overshadowing the GOP rank and file’s movement toward Trump and his own efforts to broaden his appeal as general election campaign takes shape.
“If we make a deal, that will be great,” Trump told Fox News Channel when asked about Thursday’s meeting with Ryan, who has so far refused to endorse him. “And if we don’t, we will trudge forward like I’ve been doing and winning all the time.”
Trump’s allies echoed his contention that he can claim the White House with or without leading congressional Republicans, who continue to express reservations about his tone and inconsistent policy prescriptions. Their public differences are overshadowing prospective voters’ movement toward Trump and his own efforts to broaden his appeal as the general election campaign takes shape.
His likely November opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, still has Sen. Bernie Sanders opposing her for her party’s nomination. But she all but ignored him Wednesday as she campaigned in Blackwood, New Jersey.
She focused instead on Trump’s statement in an Associated Press interview that he doesn’t plan to release his tax returns until an ongoing audit is completed. Should Trump not release his returns before the November election it would mark a break from precedent for presidential nominees.
“So you’ve got to ask yourself why doesn’t he want to release it? Yeah, well, we’re going to find out,” Clinton told supporters.
Meanwhile, more Republican voters appear to be moving behind Trump, despite big-name holdouts such as Ryan, both former president Bushes and the party’s 2012 nominee Mitt Romney.
Almost two in three Republican-leaning voters now view Trump favorably, compared to 31 percent who view him unfavorably, according to a national Gallup Poll taken last week. The numbers represent a near reversal from Gallup’s survey in early March.
