GREEN BAY, Wisconsin/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Republican Donald Trump took steps to steer his White House campaign back into favour with his party establishment yesterday by endorsing U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and two Republican senators seeking re-election, after expressing coolness toward them earlier this week.
“I need a Republican Senate and a House to accomplish all of the changes that we have to make,” Trump said during a rally in Green Bay, in northern Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state. He also endorsed Senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, whom he called a “rising star.”
“We will have disagreements, but we will disagree as friends,” Trump said.
Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, had no plans to attend the event, in a sign of lingering frictions between the pair. His Republican primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, did attend, according to a spokesman.
Trump earlier this week refused to endorse Ryan when he told The Washington Post he was “not quite there yet” – using the same phrase Ryan had used about Trump before finally endorsing him. He said in the same interview that McCain had not done enough for veterans and criticized Ayotte for distancing herself from him during the campaign.
Ryan, who was earlier endorsed by Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, is viewed by establishment Republicans as a possible presidential candidate in the future. He is expected to win a challenge for his House seat in next week’s Republican primary.
Trump’s endorsement emerged as he took other steps to get his campaign back on track after days of controversy and falling poll numbers that have given Democrat Hillary Clinton the advantage in the race to the Nov. 8 election.
In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released yesterday, Clinton’s lead over Trump narrowed to less than 3 percentage points, down from nearly 8 points on Monday.
Trump yesterday announced he was setting up an advisory team to help guide him on economic policy. The group relies heavily on hedge fund managers and investment bankers, a group Trump has railed against in the past, and includes no women.
In addition, Trump plans to release his framework for boosting the U.S. economy in a speech in Detroit on Monday, an event that will offer him a chance to avoid theatrics and detail how he would handle economic issues if elected.
Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore told Reuters that the candidate’s plan would focus on four areas: tax, deregulation, energy policy and trade. “It’s going to be an all-encompassing look at how we reform the economy,” Moore said.
At a rally in Des Moines, Trump showed newfound discipline, mostly sticking to his central charge that Clinton is the “queen of corruption.” He defended himself against her charge that he is temperamentally unfit for the White House.
“All my life I’ve been told, ‘You have the greatest temperament,'” he said.
He urged voters to also consider his vice presidential running mate, who appeared with him at the event.
“If you don’t like me, that’s okay, vote for Pence, because it’s the same thing,” he said.
