Ryan faces competing pressures from different parts of his own caucus. Some members warn they’ll be monitoring his loyalty to Trump. Other senior members want Ryan to stick to the conservative line on spending and other matters and not roll over for Trump, a stance that could bring a quick end to the uneasy peace between the speaker and the new president.
The two men see eye to eye on repealing Obamacare as the first order of business, but don’t agree yet on the details of how to replace it. Other early flashpoints are likely to be Trump’s insistence on a $1 billion infrastructure plan and a wall along the Mexican border — both of which could balloon the deficit, anathema to a spending hawk like Ryan…
Even with full Republican control of Congress and the presidency, some conservatives warn that Ryan, 46, will be on a short leash. Trump has strong support within the House GOP conference, and the speaker must tread lightly because it was the president-elect’s Republican uprising that succeeded, not his own.
And while Trump may not be perfectly meshed with the policy thinking of the most conservative House Republicans, many of them are kindred spirits in his anti-establishment, change-Washington bent.
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