Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is now publicly feuding with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally who has been influencing his campaign strategy, previously accused Ryan of corruption and secretly working for Hillary Clinton.
Trump recently committed “an extraordinary breach of political decorum” when he told The Washington Post that he’s not ready to endorse Ryan for re-election. Trump also praised Ryan’s primary challenger and Politico reported today that “a group of former Trump campaign hands is quietly working to defeat the House speaker in his primary election next week.”
Stone currently heads a pro-Trump super PAC after working for the campaign last year. He regularly meets with Trump and his senior staff, and is the former business partner of campaign head Paul Manafort. Stone has repeatedly shown that he has Trump’s ear; Politico recently reported that Stone was “pleased Trump was seemingly following his outside advice” when Trump claimed the general election would be “rigged” to favor Clinton.
Trump’s attitude toward Ryan follows numerous attacks by Stone against the Wisconsin Republican. During the May 9 broadcast of his radio program, Alex Jones claimed that Ryan was trying to steal the Republican nomination from Trump. He then said that “little rat bastards” Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are “on record” backing Hillary Clinton and “they’ll steal the money, and then they’ll scuttle the campaign and give it to Hillary.” Stone responded that Jones is “absolutely right” and Karl Rove is helping them.
ALEX JONES: It shows their arrogance that they think they can try to steal it even though it already backfired on them when they tried to publicly sell it. If Paul Ryan said he’d rather have Hillary and so has the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, on record, then they have no place at the head of the RNC. They have no place as the speaker. No place as the Senate majority leader. I say get on the offense now. I understand Trump is giving them a chance to back off. And they need to just remove themselves because look, they’ll steal the money, and then they’ll scuttle the campaign and give it to Hillary. That’s their stinking plan, they’ve admitted it. These little rat bastards have admitted it. Mr. Stone, am I wrong?
ROGER STONE: No, you’re absolutely right, and Alex this is the insidious hand of Karl Rove.
Jones’ Infowars.com website headlined Stone’s segment: “Trump Insider: Paul Ryan Working For Hillary, Trying To Steal RNC Money.” Stone in May also accused Ryan and RNC chairman Reince Priebus of hatching a plan to “extort Trump” at the Republican convention.
Stone has also repeatedly attacked Ryan on Twitter. Before the Wisconsin presidential primary, Stone tweeted: “Walker-Ryan Machine in Wisc in high gear against @realDonaldTrump adept at vote stealing says expert Richard Charnin.” In March he tweeted, “No doubt the lobbyist funded Romney-Ryan-Bush-Rubio-Cruz wing of the party will try to steal the nod from @realDonaldTrump - They will lose.” And in December he wrote: “Paul Ryan is Boehner with a beard- spending bill bi-partisan treachery. Only @realDonaldTrump can clean up this mess.”