The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: rino
Former President Trump, left, shaking hands with former House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Trump Blasts Former Speaker Ryan As A ‘Curse’ On Party

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Former President Donald Trump is not pleased with former House Speaker Paul Ryan's remarks suggesting that it is time for the Republican Party to move on from the controversial Trump presidency.

On Friday, Trump released a statement targeting Ryan, whom he refers to as a "RINO" — a Republican in Name Only. The former president lambasted Ryan, although the former speaker did not criticize Trump by name.

Trump also attempted to blame Ryan, who was a candidate for vice president, for the political party's loss in 2012 as he insisted that he shouldn't be the person to offer advice about the future of the party.

In the statement, Trump said, "Paul Ryan has been a curse to the Republican Party. He has no clue as to what needs to be done for our Country, was a weak and ineffective leader, and spends all of his time fighting Republicans as opposed to Democrats who are destroying our Country."

Trump's fiery remarks came less than a day after Ryan's speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. During his speech, Ryan acknowledged the "crossroads" the party is facing.

"Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here's one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere," Ryan said on Thursday, May 28.

Though the speech was interpreted as a criticism of the GOP's direction under Trump, it did not attack the former president by name. In, fact, when he did name Trump, it was to praise him: "To his credit, Donald Trump brought many new voters into our party."

Ryan was, however, critical of Trump's allies in Congress and elsewhere, saying people "will not be impressed by the sight of yes-men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago." And he did say: "It was horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end."

Of course, the former House speaker also criticized President Biden.

"In 2020, the country wanted a nice guy who would move to the center and depolarize our politics," Ryan said. "Instead, we got a nice guy pursuing an agenda more leftist than any president in my lifetime."

Trump Insulted El Paso’s GOP Mayor During ‘Comfort’ Visit

Trump Insulted El Paso’s GOP Mayor During ‘Comfort’ Visit

Trump couldn’t make it through his recent visit to El Paso without insulting the city’s mayor, according to PBS’s “Frontline.”

In an interview with Frontline, Republican Mayor Dee Margo relayed a conversation he had with Trump during a car ride from the airport.

“He said, ‘You’re a RINO,'” Margo said. RINO, or “Republican in name only,” is an insult insinuating that a particular politician is not conservative enough.

“I said, ‘No, sir. I am not a RINO,'” Margo said. “I said … ‘I simply corrected the misinformation you were given by [the Texas] attorney general, and that’s all I did.'”

Trump’s insult stemmed from a dispute following his State of the Union address in February, when Trump lied about violent crime in El Paso. In the speech, Trump claimed that a fence along the border turned El Paso from one of the most violent cities in America into a city with less violent crime.

After the speech, Margo called out Trump’s lie, which Trump was using to justify spending billions of U.S. taxpayer money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Trump has long since abandoned his campaign pledge that Mexico would pay for such a wall.)

Trump’s insult came during a visit that was already being criticized by the residents of El Paso. Trump ostensibly went to comfort a grieving city in the wake of a mass shooting where a white supremacist walked into a Walmart and killed 22 people. The shooter later told the police that he wanted to kill “Mexicans” and used other hateful and racist language about immigrants that bore a striking resemblance to that used by Trump.

Before his visit, El Paso’s Democratic congresswoman, Veronica Escobar, said Trump wasn’t welcome.

“Words have consequences. And the president has made my community and my people the enemy,” Escobar said. “He has told the country that we are people to be feared, people to be hated.”

One woman credited with saving at least 40 lives in the massacre did not mince words about Trump’s responsibility for what happened.

“You preach and you say things, and this is what happens,” Adria González said in a video posted after the shooting, gesturing to the crime scene at the site of the killings.

Trump visited El Paso in February for a campaign rally, and he wasn’t welcome at that time, either. The rally followed on the heels of Trump insulting the city during the State of the Union address.

To add further injury to the city, Trump has thus far refused to pay El Paso for debts incurred during the campaign rally. His campaign still owes the city more than $569,000 for providing security during the visit.

The mayor wasn’t even the only person Trump insulted while he was in town. During a visit to a local hospital, Trump used his time in the city to lie about the size of his February rally and attack former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic candidate for president and the person who formerly represented El Paso in Congress.

Trump was only in El Paso for a few hours last week, but even during his brief visit, he simply could not restrain himself or muster the appropriate presidential demeanor a grieving city would expect.

Published with permission of The American Independent.