In a speech, the former House speaker is expected to call on the Republican Party not to move forward in Donald Trump’s image, though he is not expected to criticize the former president by name.
Paul D. Ryan, the former Republican speaker of the House, was set to re-enter the political arena on Thursday night with a speech obliquely criticizing Donald J. Trump and warning Republicans that the only viable future for the fractured party is one unattached to the former president. “Here’s one reality we have to face,” Mr. Ryan planned to say, according to excerpts from his remarks released before his appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. “If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere.” In the excerpts, Mr. Ryan tempered his criticism by avoiding any mention of Mr. Trump by name — except to say that the former president’s brand of populism, when “tethered to conservative principles,” had led to economic growth. A senior adviser for Mr. Trump, Jason Miller, responded to the speech with a terse brushoff: “Who is Paul Ryan?” he said in a text message. Mr. Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee, left behind his 20-year career in Congress in 2019.
