House Speaker lies low amid the swirl of big issues
Since Trump’s election, Ryan treads softly on contentious issues
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fierce believer in America as a land of immigrants, recently attended a dinner party with an immigrant who was brought to this country illegally as a child. When she pleaded with him to help young unauthorized immigrants like herself, often called “Dreamers,” gain legal status, he hesitated — the House, he said, would only pass legislation that the president would sign into law.
He again held back last month after the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee confronted him over their conclusion that Republican aides on the House Intelligence Committee had leaked the private text messages of a senior senator to Fox News. The senators asked for no specific action, and Ryan offered none.
But when Trump challenged Republican free-trade orthodoxy, Ryan — a fervent advocate of trade accords for decades — had to respond, albeit four days later and through his press secretary. The speaker, his spokeswoman said, was “extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war” that could be sparked by the president’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
On one contentious issue after another — the investigation of Russian interference in U.S. elections, trade, immigration and gun control — a speaker who rose to prominence as an outspoken, almost brash leader, determined to bring his party along with his vision of governance, has receded. Instead, he wields his gavel gingerly.
Even on one of his signature issues, free trade, he has mostly worked behind the scenes to change the president’s mind.