--- title: Donald Trump: Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' GOP Is Unified description: Speaking the day before his meeting with Donald Trump, Paul Ryan said he will not pretend like the Republican Party is unified. canonical: https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-11T15:03:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:10.515Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' Republican Party Is Unified og:description: He sets the stage for a meeting with Donald Trump. og:url: https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38cfc518319ef602/698892c58e0601fa78465d32/trump-ryan2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2857 og:image:height: 1607 og:image:alt: trump-ryan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' Republican Party Is Unified twitter:description: He sets the stage for a meeting with Donald Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38cfc518319ef602/698892c58e0601fa78465d32/trump-ryan2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' Republican Party Is Unified Before Donald Trump Meeting > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 11, 2016 3:03 PM UTC  Paul Ryan in Washington, on May 11, 2016 (L); Donald Trump in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 5, 2016. Paul Ryan in Washington, on May 11, 2016 (L); Donald Trump in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 5, 2016. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images (L); Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 11, 2016 3:03 PM UTC Speaking the day before his [meeting with Donald Trump](http://time.com/4321574/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republican-meeting/?iid=sr-link3), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said he will not pretend like the Republican Party is unified and ready for the general election. “To pretend we’re unified as a party after coming through a very bruising primary, which just ended like a week ago, to pretend we’re unified without actually unifying, then we go into the fall at half strength,” he said at a press conference with Republican leadership at the Capitol Wednesday. “This election is too important to go into an election at half strength. That means that we need a real unification of our party. Which, look, after a tough primary that’s going to take some effort.” Ryan’s words set the stakes high for his Thursday meeting with Trump, especially since he [has said that he can’t yet support Trump](http://time.com/4320139/donald-trump-paul-ryan-republican-party/?iid=sr-link6) as the [presumptive nominee](http://time.com/4318138/republican-party-donald-trump-john-kasich/?iid=sr-link2). With Ryan likely chairing the Republican convention in July, he only has a few weeks to make peace with Trump and heal the splintered party before the general election begins. “I don’t really know him,” Ryan said of Trump, saying they met in person once in 2012 and spoke on the phone in March. “We just need to get to know each other.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' Republican Party Is Unified Before Donald Trump Meeting","datePublished":"2016-05-11T15:03:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:10.515Z","description":"Speaking the day before his meeting with Donald Trump, Paul Ryan said he will not pretend like the Republican Party is unified.","url":"https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/","keywords":["Congress","republicans","2016 Election","Paul Ryan","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38cfc518319ef602/698892c58e0601fa78465d32/trump-ryan2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38cfc518319ef602/698892c58e0601fa78465d32/trump-ryan2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-ryan","caption":"Paul Ryan in Washington, on May 11, 2016 (L); Donald Trump in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 5, 2016.","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images (L); Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4326201/paul-ryan-donald-trump-republicans-unified/","name":"Paul Ryan Won't 'Pretend' Republican Party Is Unified Before Donald Trump Meeting"}}]}] ```