Donald Trump’s meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan was the talk of Washington Thursday, but a former top Republican official says party unity will only come when Trump reaches out to skeptical Republicans, those same Republicans give him a fair evaluation and party leaders are comfortable with his tone.
The build-up to Thursday’s meeting began days ago, when Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “I’m not there yet,” when it comes to endorsing Trump.
Following Thursday’s encounter, both Trump and Ryan called the encounter a positive step. Ryan suggested they agreed on core principles and didn’t talk much about specific issues. He also said 45 minutes was not enough time to make him ready to formally back Trump but looked forward to future conversations.
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Donatelli, who also served as political director in the Reagan White House, said party unity is a must if the GOP hopes to win in November.
“It’s very, very important. The parties are very polarized these days and, typically, each party gets 90 percent of the party members that vote in that election. Anything that falls off even slightly from that is a real problem as far as the nominee is concerned,” said Donatelli.
“It’s not enough for the Republican nominee to have overwhelming support. They have to have almost unanimous support in order to have enough votes to compete for independents and win the presidential election,” said Donatelli.
Recent polls suggest Trump is improving in his efforts to consolidate GOP support, although he won Tuesday’s Nebraska primary with about 61 percent of the vote despite having no real opposition. Donatelli says winning over Ryan, who sees himself as an heir to the sunny, free market Reagan legacy would help Trump because a lot of Republicans agree with Ryan on most issues.
Donatelli thinks Ryan approached the meeting well, both in what was discussed and in how he sees the relationship going forward.
“I think Ryan is right to talk about general principles rather than specific proposals. At least let’s get agreement on general principles as a way of moving forward,” said Donatelli.
” It would not be credible for these men to have one meeting and say, ‘Oh look, we’ve agreed on everything.’ That is not going to satisfy anybody. It’s the idea of baby steps here. You have one meeting and narrow the differences. Then there’s another meeting and maybe there’s a meeting of the minds here where eventually they can all get on board. It’s not going to happen right away,” added Donatelli.
The greatest galvanizing force for the right is the desire to stop Hillary Clinton from winning the White House. But Donatelli says that alone won’t bring Republicans together.
“That goes a part of the way but obviously it doesn’t go far enough with Ryan or (Arizona Sen.) Jeff Flake or Mitt Romney or a lot of other Republicans that still have doubts,” said Donatelli.
Donatelli says both sides of the GOP divide need to make overtures to the other, starting with Trump.
“I think it’s up to the nominee and the campaign to unify the party. Hopefully, that means the candidate and his team is on the phone, calling Republicans, talking to them, encouraging them to be part of the team, not threatening them but trying to build a common set of principles that all Republicans can run on,” said Donatelli.
But he also says the Republicans currently stiff-arming Trump, also need to take action.
“Conversely, it’s up to all Republicans to take a look at the candidate, what his principles are and the tone of his campaign and make an honest judgment as to whether or not they want to be part of that effort,” said Donatelli.
But ultimately Donatelli says Republicans need to follow their conscience, and he says some Republicans are reluctant to formally back a wild card like Trump.
“I think it disturbs him and it disturbs a lot of Republicans if we have a nominee that’s constantly combative and belittling and just not speaking or acting the way a president should act, with grace and with measure and always thinking before they are saying something,” said Donatelli.
He says that issue more than any policy positions are holding back more endorsements, especially from down ballot candidates who aren’t sure how close they should get to Trump.
“On the one hand, they want to be true to the Republican Party and the nominee. On the other hand, they have their own coalition they have to put together to win, especially in swing states and so-called purple states. You’re going to see candidates come up with different formulations as to how they try to balance those two objectives,” said Donatelli.
The good news for all sides, according to Donatelli, is that there’s ample time to coalesce.
“We have plenty of time down the road. The convention’s not for a couple of months. Let’s keep talking and let’s see if we can get on the same page,” said Donatelli.
While the outcome of the convention in Cleveland is no longer in doubt, Donatelli says that week could still spawn some fierce debates.
“The fact that this is not going to be a contested convention, in the sense that we know who the nominee is going to be, that doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be a lot of controversies at the convention. There are a lot of platform issues that need to be worked out, probably some credentials fights, some rules fights,” said Donatelli.
Another major issue is who will speak at the convention and trying to nail down what other speakers will say, particularly figures like Sen. Ted Cruz, who spent months locked in a bitter fight with Trump.
“All these issues are still to be negotiated and determined, so I think that the RNC chair and his staff’s work has just begun in this regard,” said Donatelli.
