Former House Speaker Paul Ryan Says He’s Not Voting for Trump: ‘Character is Too Important’
Paul Ryan has no interest in giving Donald Trump another chance in November.
The former speaker of the House of Representatives told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday that he has no plans to vote for the former president, adding that he would write for a Republican candidate instead.
“Character is too important to me,” Ryan told us at the Milken Institute Global Conference. “(The presidency) is a job that requires the kind of character that (Trump) doesn’t have.”
Ryan, who left the presidency in 2019, has since expressed his opposition to Trump. At a panel Monday, Ryan warned of the stakes in the upcoming election, saying Trump would be “bad on NATO, bad on alliances, bad on Europe and bad on trade.”
“Democracy is being tested in two very specific ways. One within, with our polarization devouring each other,” said Ryan, who is now vice president and partner at private equity firm Solamere Capital.
“The second comes from (the outside), authoritarian regimes that are basically saying they have power, they can make decisions faster, they can beat democracy.”
Six months before Election Day, President Joe Biden and Trump remain engaged in a tight race, with the candidates tied 37%-37% in the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll.
So far, Trump has struggled to fully unite the Republican Party behind his candidacy. Only a small fraction of former Cabinet members supported him, prompting his response in a recent interview with Time magazine.
“I’ve had bad people. When they think they’re not supportive and they’re not going to come back, they’re not inclined to approve of it,” he said.
Ryan said he supports Trump’s tax policies and favors extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a bill he championed during his tenure as president. But he warned against the spending plans proposed by both candidates, saying Biden and Trump are “demagogic” lawmakers who are “proposing solutions.”
The IMF projects that U.S. government debt will increase from 122.1% to 133.9% of annual GDP by the end of this decade.
Ryan also spoke out against Trump’s plan to impose 10% tariffs on all global exports and 60% tariffs on Chinese goods.
“I think a 10 percent tariff across the board is very, very bad economic policy,” Ryan said. “This is a tax of just 10% on American consumers, making our businesses less competitive.”
Ryan reiterated his opposition to Biden’s plan to end Trump’s $1.7 trillion tax cut, saying it would lead to “a massive increase in taxes on medium and small businesses as well.”
“I think they are both bad for the economy,” he said, adding that he would still vote in the presidential election. “I wrote in a Republican last time. I’m going to write in a Republican this time.
Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita.
Click here for political news related to the trade and monetary policies that will shape tomorrow’s stock prices..
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
yahoo
