Trump brings his insurgency to Paul Ryan country

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP, Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

JANESVILLE, Wis. — The battle for the soul of the Republican Party comes here on Tuesday as Donald Trump re-emerges on the campaign trail with an afternoon rally in the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The scheduled stop comes just a week before the crucial April 5 Wisconsin Republican presidential primary, where Trump hopes to add to his delegate lead in his bid to claim the GOP nomination. But it is also likely to highlight the ongoing cold war between Trump and Ryan as they both fight to claim control of a party that is increasingly and ever bitterly divided.

Trump’s insurgent campaign, driven less by policy and more by the candidate’s unique combination of from-the-gut populism and celebrity showmanship, is directly at odds with the cerebral, deeply conservative politics that elevated Ryan to the upper echelon of the party. That tension between Trump and Ryan personifies the deep fissures within the GOP over what kind of party it wants to be and how to get there. And if Trump ultimately becomes the nominee, his relationship with Ryan could be the first significant test of his pledge to be a “unifier” not only of a party in turmoil but also of the rest of the country.

Ryan has repeatedly pledged to be neutral in the Republican presidential race, pointing, in part, to his role as chairman of this summer’s party convention, where he could be called to oversee the debate over a contested nomination. But that hasn’t stopped him and Trump from engaging each other — if not by name — in a back-and-forth over the tone and substance of the campaign and the future of the party.

Last week, Ryan delivered a speech lamenting the “divisive” state of politics, which he said was being overtaken by partisan tribalism and personal attacks. While Ryan did not single out any party or candidate, the speech was widely seen as a rebuke to Trump’s style of politics.

“Politics can be a battle of ideas, not insults,’’ Ryan declared. “Our political discourse — both the kind we see on TV and the kind we experience among each other — did not used to be this bad, and it does not have to be this way.”

In comments that seemed directly aimed at Trump and his supporters, the House speaker repeatedly called on voters to respect each other’s opinions and for politicians to elevate the discourse.

“Instead of playing to your anxieties, we can appeal to your aspirations. Instead of playing the identity politics of our base versus their base, we unite people around ideas and principles. And instead of being timid, we go bold. We don’t just resort to scaring you; we dare to inspire you,” Ryan said. “As leaders, we need to raise our gaze and we need to raise our game and talk about ideas to try to unite us, not prey on people’s separations or their identities.”

Trump, who has not formally campaigned since winning the Arizona primary on March 22, offered no direct reaction to Ryan’s speech. But the morning after the House speaker’s remarks, the Trump campaign responded in its own way. On the candidate’s website, it was announced that Trump would kick off his Wisconsin campaign in Janesville, Ryan’s home turf.

In some ways, the exchanges of fire between Ryan and Trump show how rapidly the party has changed. In 2012, when Mitt Romney picked Ryan as his vice presidential running mate, the Wisconsin congressman was viewed as a somewhat anti-establishment figure who could help smooth over the GOP nominee’s combative relationship with party conservatives.

But as Trump has seized the anti-establishment mantle in his own campaign, the real estate mogul has trashed Ryan as a party insider whose leadership in Washington has failed.

The two have significant policy disagreements, including Ryan’s support of free trade — which Trump strongly opposes. Trump has also trashed Ryan’s plan to rein in spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which he says is the reason the party lost the White House in 2012.

“That was the end of that campaign, when they chose Ryan,” Trump, who opposes cuts to entitlements, said during a town hall in South Carolina in February. “I said, you’ve got to be kidding.”

The two also disagree on the signature issue of Trump’s campaign: deporting millions of illegal immigrants. Though Ryan has said as House speaker he won’t take up any immigration overhaul while President Obama is in office, he has also voiced support for changing the system to give some legal status to immigrants living here illegally.

Ryan has been critical of Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims coming to the U.S. in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in California and in Paris — a position the GOP frontrunner reiterated after last week’s attack in Brussels. “This is not conservatism,” Ryan said in December, after Trump first raised the idea. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and, more importantly, it is not what this country stands for.”

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly insisted he can unify the GOP — while endlessly trashing the party’s leadership and the “status quo” in Washington. He has repeatedly fired off warnings to those who might get in his way, including Ryan.

“Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along with him, and if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price, OK?” Trump told reporters after his victories on Super Tuesday.

In the days after that remark, Trump played up his role as the GOP frontrunner, bragging to reporters and supporters at his rallies that influential Republicans were now calling him. He said it was proof that the party was beginning to line up behind him. Among those who had called him, he said, was Ryan, whom he now praised as someone he “liked” a lot.

“It was just very conciliatory. We get along well. I like him a lot. I respect him a lot. I think he respects me,” Trump said to CNN, describing his call with Ryan. “I think he really does respect what I’ve done. He said it. It’s amazing. He said it’s amazing.”

Speaking to supporters a few days later during an election night rally at his Mar-a-Lago beach club, Trump again bragged that Ryan had called him. “Paul Ryan called me the other day,” he said. “Tremendous call.”

But Ryan aides were quick to downplay the call, noting that the House speaker had called Trump “at his request,” not out of the blue, as the GOP frontrunner had repeatedly suggested. A spokesman also pointed out that Ryan had spoken to the other Republican presidential hopefuls as well.

Neither man has offered many details about their single conversation, which lasted just 10 minutes. Ryan, according to an aide, focused mainly on his plans for the House’s legislative agenda this year. Trump has not divulged what he said to the Wisconsin Republican.

But Trump seems likely to say something about Ryan as he brings his unorthodox campaign to the House speaker’s backyard on Tuesday in what clearly appears to be a calculated visit. And it’s unclear if the candidate will heed calls to elevate the tone of his campaign in what could be a particularly combative atmosphere.

On Monday night, a little less than 24 hours before the scheduled rally, several protesters were arrested for attempting a sit-in at the site as part of an effort to get Trump’s rally canceled. And Janesville police were bracing for what could be even more widespread protests Tuesday.