President-elect Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have put their rocky start behind them and are learning how to get along – for now.
One key to their blossoming new friendship: Along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, they are mapping out an agenda for 2017 that focuses on broad areas of agreement, putting off thorny policy issues that are likely to invite clashes until a later date.
Even so, Trump made clear this week that the warm embrace he now bestows on Ryan can be revoked at any time.
“Every day goes by, I get to appreciate his genius more and more,” Trump told a crowd in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, comparing the speaker to a “fine wine” before adding a warning: “Now, if he ever goes against me, I’m not going to say that.”
For his part, Ryan, who initially refused to endorse Trump, now brims with enthusiasm at the opportunities afforded by unified GOP control of Washington next year.
“We’re working on an aggressive timetable for 2017,” the speaker said Thursday. “We’re right now sitting down with Sen. McConnell and the Trump administration, the transition team, to try and flesh out what we think is a realistic timetable so that we get the legislation prepped and ready to go.”
Trump and congressional Republicans plan to start the year by repealing President Obama’s health care law, and then move to reform the loophole-cluttered U.S. tax code. Trump wants huge tax cuts and has largely embraced a blueprint devised by the House GOP, which envisions lower rates on corporations, individuals and investments.
The issues where Trump and Ryan may be more likely to disagree – like an enormous infrastructure bill, an overhaul of Medicare, or immigration – have been pushed to the back burner. Health care and taxes alone are likely to consume the first year of Trump’s administration and are certain to involve plenty of complications themselves, but at least Republicans start out generally in the same place.
“I think the important thing to do is focus on what we agree on, get that moving, and then make the others a work in progress,” GOP Rep. Peter King of New York said Thursday after meeting with Trump at Trump Tower. “Generally if you’re doing well and if it is moving along, some of the other issues have a way of working themselves out.”
Ryan and Trump come from vastly different political orientations. Ryan, 46, is an earnest conservative wonk, schooled in the nitty-gritty of tax and budget policy, who’s committed to core GOP principles like free trade. Trump, 70, took stances such as barring Muslims and rounding up immigrants that Ryan repudiated.