Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) shared his thoughts on former President Trump on Wednesday, saying that Trump now represents the establishment wing of the GOP.
Ryan shared with The Washington Post that his views were now the minority in his party and that Trump’s MAGA beliefs have become the establishment.
“I’m in the minority in my party right now; I’m not in the establishment. I’m frankly an anti-establishment Republican, and I think you can safely argue — I don’t enjoy acknowledging this — that Trump is the establishment, and Trump populism is the establishment,” Ryan said.
Ryan has never shied away from criticizing Trump, and the now board member of the Fox Corporation Board of Directors also defended Fox News coverage that has aligned more with Trump’s views.
“That Trump populism is this more isolationist strain that I think is wrong and dangerous, and I don’t support, but that does represent a large swath of Republican voters,” Ryan said.
Ryan noted that many Republican voters are in the same place as Trump and that Fox News covers a wide range of “opinions representing that majority, that establishment, that current, present-day establishment.”
When asked about the future of the Republican party, Ryan stressed that he thinks the trend is only temporary and that the pendulum will soon swing back.
“But, again, I’m an anti-establishment Republican, and the establishment right now is Donald Trump and his cult of personality. And that is regrettable that what is attracting — what is really sort of the core of our party at this moment,” Ryan said. “I think it’s temporary because I just frankly can’t see it being sustainable.”
