By KRISTINA PETERSON and SIOBHAN HUGHES, June 2, 2016

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) on Thursday endorsed Donald Trump for president, ending the highest-ranking elected Republican’s public hesitation over the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Mr. Ryan’s decision to back Mr. Trump flattened one of the last remaining hurdles the New York businessman faced in winning over the party’s top leaders and donors. Though other prominent Republicans have refused to endorse Mr. Trump, the House speaker’s acceptance of the contentious real-estate mogul effectively blunted any remaining momentum in the wing of the GOP that had once sought to stop Mr. Trump’s ascent.

In an opinion piece in his hometown newspaper posted Thursday afternoon and on Twitter, Mr. Ryan said he would vote for Mr. Trump after having spoken with him about policy issues. In early May, the speaker had said he was “not ready” to back the candidate, launching an awkward dance between the two.

“It’s no secret that he and I have our differences…And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind,” Mr. Ryan wrote in the Janesville Gazette. “But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.”

Mr. Ryan made the decision to endorse Mr. Trump while in Wisconsin earlier this week, according to a person familiar with his deliberations. The two Republicans have spoken roughly five times. The speaker didn’t give Mr. Trump’s campaign a heads-up that his endorsement would be coming Thursday, but he did notify a small group of House GOP leaders shortly before his comments went online.

Mr. Trump in a tweet Thursday said it was “great” to have the speaker’s support. “We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!” he added.

GOP leaders and donors had already been coalescing behind Mr. Trump, who last week secured the delegates he needs to become the Republican presidential nominee and take on likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November. The op-ed piece in the Wisconsin paper was published just as Mrs. Clinton delivered a major foreign-policy address in which she called Mr. Trump’s positions “dangerously incoherent.”

Democrats welcomed the Ryan endorsement, saying Republicans now couldn’t avoid being linked to Mr. Trump, which they hope would weigh down GOP lawmakers in swing states.

“Speaker Ryan’s abject surrender makes it official: the GOP is Trump’s party now,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

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Mr. Ryan was becoming one of the last remaining holdouts in his party, as even some Trump skeptics had acknowledged that he had won the national votes needed to make him the GOP nominee. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) backed Mr. Trump as soon as his final rivals dropped out after the Indiana primary in early May.

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.) said both Messrs. Ryan and Trump told him they were encouraged by the phone conversation they had last Wednesday about House Republicans’ policy agenda, the speaker’s priority for the year. Mr. Ryan took away from the talk “that House Republicans were helping shape that agenda not only for ourselves, but also for Mr. Trump’s campaign,” said Mr. Cramer, an early House Republican supporter of Mr. Trump’s.

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They’ll never see eye to eye on free trade; they probably won’t see eye to eye on the border either,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), an early congressional endorser of Mr. Trump. “But Paul Ryan’s not a national elected figure—Donald Trump is. I don’t see why Donald Trump would move sideways or backwards or forwards to accommodate anyone’s agenda.”

Rep. Reid Ribble, a fellow Wisconsin Republican, said Mr. Ryan felt increasingly comfortable that if Mr. Trump became president, he would be willing to sign conservative bills into law.

Mr. Ribble said he didn’t expect Mr. Ryan, who is popular in his district, would face a backlash in Wisconsin, where Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won in the state’s primary. But Mr. Ribble, who has said he can’t endorse either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton, said some House Republicans remain concerned about Mr. Trump’s “tone and temperament,” highlighted this week in a combative press conference over his fundraising for veterans.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ryan-to...tion-1464894934

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