--- title: Dan Quayle Says Republicans Must Support Donald Trump description: Former Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday urged the Republican Party to unite around Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-12T14:08:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:29:43.295Z article:section: Politics og:title: Former VP Dan Quayle Says GOP Must Support Trump og:description: "The party is going to have to unify." og:url: https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbba2336437a6595a/698892e0cd1bba7987700a98/dan-quayle-paul-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dan Quayle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Former VP Dan Quayle Says GOP Must Support Trump twitter:description: "The party is going to have to unify." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbba2336437a6595a/698892e0cd1bba7987700a98/dan-quayle-paul-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former VP Dan Quayle Says GOP Must Support Trump by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 12, 2016 2:08 PM UTC  Dan Quayle is interviewed by Maria Bartiromo in New York, July 24, 2014. Dan Quayle is interviewed by Maria Bartiromo in New York, July 24, 2014.AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 12, 2016 2:08 PM UTC Former Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday urged the Republican Party to unite around Donald Trump, despite concerns of some members of the Establishment. “He’s the presumptive nominee. Now the party is going to have to unify around someone that they did not expect to be the nominee,” [Quayle said on NBC News’ TODAY](http://www.today.com/video/exclusive-dan-quayle-weighs-in-on-donald-trump-divided-gop-684291651893). “I was a Republican vice president, I’ve been a Republican all my life, I’m going to support the nominee.” Quayle’s backing gives Trump a notable establishment voice at a time when he is struggling to win over the Republican Party. Trump has exposed deep divides in the GOP, and leading voices have said they are not prepared to support him, citing his positions as well as his brash political style. The president during Quayle’s tenure in the White House, George H.W. Bush, as well as former president George W. Bush have stayed on the sidelines, while prominent Republicans such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have declined to support him. **Read More:** [_Here’s a Ranking of Republican Reactions to Donald Trump from ‘Sad!’ to ‘Yuuge’_](http://time.com/4325178/donald-trump-republican-support/) Trump will [meet on Thursday with House Speaker Paul Ryan](http://time.com/4327171/donald-trump-paul-ryan-meeting-congress-republicans/), who has said that he is not ready to back him. Quayle said he expects Ryan to unify behind Trump. “I fully expect that Paul Ryan will eventually support Donald Trump publicly,” he said. “We do have to be unified. If we’re not unified we have a real lot of trouble.” Quayle recommended Ohio Sen. Rob Portman as Trump’s vice presidential pick and added that Trump needs to brush up on his policy chops. “He really needs to get more involved in the policy,” Quayle said. “He made a speech on foreign policy. He’s got to make another speech on foreign policy, he’s got to make a speech on the economy, he’s got to show he’s presidential.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/"},"headline":"Former VP Dan Quayle Says GOP Must Support Trump","datePublished":"2016-05-12T14:08:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:29:43.295Z","description":"Former Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday urged the Republican Party to unite around Donald Trump","url":"https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","vice president"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbba2336437a6595a/698892e0cd1bba7987700a98/dan-quayle-paul-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbba2336437a6595a/698892e0cd1bba7987700a98/dan-quayle-paul-ryan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dan Quayle","caption":"Dan Quayle is interviewed by Maria Bartiromo in New York, July 24, 2014.","creditText":"AP","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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4327600/former-vp-dan-quayle-says-gop-must-support-trump/","name":"Former VP Dan Quayle Says GOP Must Support Trump"}}]}] ```