Ryan's remarks to reporters after the meeting were just as effusive as the joint statement. "He's a very warm and genuine person," he said. "We really don't know each other and we started to get to know each other."
Trump responded in kind, indicating that he was satisfied with Ryan as the chairman of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland where he will be nominated. "I am happy to serve in this capacity at the Republican convention," Ryan told reporters. "I would honor the decision of our presumptive nominee and he did express that preference."
Every other top Republican congressional leader, in both the House and Senate, had already officially endorsed Trump before the Ryan-Trump meeting.
Whatever concerns there may be over the impact of Trump's candidacy on the Republican Party's electoral fortunes, there are no principled objections to his blatant anti-immigrant racism, encouragement of violence against protesters, or embrace of authoritarian methods of rule.
There remain significant differences between Trump and the congressional Republicans over foreign policy, where Trump has claimed opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq and to the current US saber-rattling against Russia. This is combined with advocacy of a huge increase in US military spending and escalation of the current war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Nearly all the opposition to Trump within the Republican Party has been from the right -- motivated by his supposed "isolationism" in foreign policy and his now-dropped opposition to entitlement cuts. Sections of the Republican Party have moved to explicitly or implicitly support Clinton, seeing her as a more reliable defender of American imperialism.
The Clinton campaign continues to send out regular updates on each Republican declaration of non-support for Trump, including an email Thursday portraying the Trump-Ryan meeting as a debacle for the Republican candidate, under the headline, "Ryan Again Refuses To Endorse Trump as Conservative Opposition To The GOP Nominee Grows."
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