Then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan listens to then-president Donald Trump speak during a meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House in Washington in 2018.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press
Former U.S. House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan says Donald Trump is morally unfit to be president again because of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and is so politically “toxic” that he would fail to get anything done if he were to return to the White House.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Mr. Ryan argued that his country must continue backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, bring in more economic immigrants – potentially by using a Canadian-style points system – and stop fighting the culture wars.
Such positions, once common among the business-focused, internationally engaged factions of his Republican Party, increasingly clash with the GOP’s current direction. The nationalistic, isolationist Mr. Trump is the runaway front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination next year.
Still, Mr. Ryan insisted, his erstwhile governing partner’s brand of politics is not going to last.
“What we have right now is populism untethered to principles, wrapped around the cult of his personality. I see that as a passing thing. I see that as a phase or a moment,” the former speaker said. As soon as Mr. Trump is off the political scene, whether in a few months or a few years, “our party will go on to something else.”
Mr. Ryan contended that President Joe Biden would likely defeat Mr. Trump in a rematch. If Mr. Trump were to prevail, Mr. Ryan said, he would not be able to drive his agenda because skilled people would not want to work with him and Congress would not pass his legislation.
“We’re likely to lose with him again. We lost the House, the Senate, the White House with him,” Mr. Ryan said. “He can’t get anything done because he’s toxic.”
Besides, Mr. Ryan said, it would be “hard to govern effectively if he’s a convicted felon by then.” The former president faces multiple criminal trials for trying to overturn the election, taking classified documents home and covering up a payoff to a porn star.
“I just don’t think he’s fit for office. Leaders ought to strive to be honest, ethical, moral people. He doesn’t do that,” Mr. Ryan said. “He doesn’t have respect for the rule of law.”
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Speaking from Toronto, where he was attending meetings as vice-chairman of consulting company Teneo, Mr. Ryan said the U.S. must focus on bringing in immigrants to fill gaps in the labour market, much like Canada does. He favours tying such reforms to increased security measures on the border with Mexico and restricting family-based immigration to “nuclear families.”
“We need good, legal immigration,” he said. “We should have economic visas based on economic needs.”
In 2018, when he was Speaker and Mr. Trump was President, Mr. Ryan tried to pass an immigration bill that would have created a points system favouring people with more education, stable careers and the ability to speak English.
The legislation, which also allocated US$25-billion for Mr. Trump’s border wall, died because Mr. Trump and his allies argued it did not do enough to crack down on unauthorized immigrants.
Mr. Ryan also favours sending more military aid to Ukraine and Israel. Failing to help stop Russia’s aggression in Ukraine would only embolden Moscow to go further. “There are people who are not looking at the lessons of history,” he said. “It can easily become a NATO fight if we don’t get this right.”
Congress is currently mulling a US$106-billion package from Mr. Biden that would do both. New House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has repeatedly voted against helping Ukraine in the past, is trying to split the package up and provide funding solely to Israel.
To tackle these and other major issues, Mr. Ryan advises his party to lay off the culture wars. The past two years have seen a spike in Republican governors and legislators attempting to ban drag shows, limit the rights of transgender people and pull books from school libraries.
“I’m not a big believer in stoking culture wars. I think the country is polarized enough. When the left goes crazy, you stand up to it, but you don’t pick fights,” Mr. Ryan said. “I didn’t like it when the left played identity politics. I don’t like it when the right plays identity politics.”
It’s clear, he said, that Mr. Trump has used these tactics to great effect, along with his ability to portray his many criminal charges as the result of an unfair justice system.
“He’s clearly got the momentum. He’s tapped into a culture war very effectively,” Mr. Ryan said. “He’s done a good job of entertaining and of casting himself as a victim.”