--- title: Paul Ryan Talks Donald Trump Meeting: Transcript of Comments description: Here's what Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday about his meeting with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4328160/paul-ryan-donald-trump-meeting-press-conference-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-12T17:37:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:09:13.992Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Paul Ryan's Remarks About His Meeting With Donald Trump og:description: "I heard a lot of good things from our presumptive nominee" og:url: https://time.com/4328160/paul-ryan-donald-trump-meeting-press-conference-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8e9a6b32b3cfe5e/698892f73c16391a5245d3bf/paul-ryan-presser.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Speaker Paul Ryan Speaks about Metting with Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Paul Ryan's Remarks About His Meeting With Donald Trump twitter:description: "I heard a lot of good things from our presumptive nominee" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8e9a6b32b3cfe5e/698892f73c16391a5245d3bf/paul-ryan-presser.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Paul Ryan's Comments About His Meeting With Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=546b5841-ec18-49a1-aa9b-034f86448a51&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Paul Ryan Calls Meeting With Trump "Very encouraging" [Watch (HLS stream): Paul Ryan Calls Meeting With Trump "Very encouraging"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TUb44uxO.m3u8) (2:14)  _Published 2016-05-12_  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 12, 2016 5:37 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 12, 2016 5:37 PM UTC At a press conference following his [meeting with Donald Trump](http://time.com/4327171/donald-trump-paul-ryan-meeting-congress-republicans/) on Thursday, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan [called their exchange “encouraging”](http://time.com/4327668/paul-ryan-donald-trump-meeting/?xid=homepage) and said the process of unifying the party would take more time. Ryan, who still did not endorse presumptive nominee Trump, said the two will need to work to find common ground amid policy disputes. Here are Ryan’s remarks from his weekly press conference Thursday at the U.S. Capitol. --- > “” --- **Read more:** [Paul Ryan Says He Would Step Down As Convention Chair If Trump Wants](http://time.com/4323088/donald-trump-paul-ryan-convention-chair/) --- > “” --- ## Transcript I think we had a very encouraging meeting. Look, it's no secret that Donald Trump and I have had our differences. We talked about those differences today. That's common knowledge. The question is What is it we need to do to unify the republican party in all strains of conservative wings in the party. We had a very good and encouraging productive conversation on just how to do that. It was important that we discussed our differences that we have, but it was also important that we discussed the core principles that tie us all together. Principles like the constitution, the separation of powers. On the fact that we have an Executive that is going way beyond the boundaries of the Constitution. And how it's important to us that we restore Article I of the Constitution. You know, it's the principle of self government. We talked about life. And how strongly we feel about this core principle. We talked about the Supreme Court and things like this. I was very encouraged with what I heard from Donald Trump today. I do believe that we are now plating the seed to get ourselves unified to bridge that gaps and differences. And so from here, we're gonna go deeper into the policy areas to see where that common ground is and how we can make sure that we're operating of the same core principles. And so yes. I'm since our first meeting, I was very encourage with this meeting But this is a process, it takes a little time. You don't put it together in 45 minutes. So I represent a wing of a conservative party, you could say. He's bringing a whole new wing to it. He's bringing new voters that we've never had for decades. That's a positive thing. The point though is, can we agree on the common core principals that unite all of us? We will have policy disputes. There's no two ways about that. All Republicans, Mitt Romney and I didn't agree on everything in 2012. So we will have policy disputes. I'm not interested in litigating the past. I am interested in going forward, and seeing where that common ground exists to make sure that we can have unified Republican party. That yes, there will be different Republicans that have different views. On various policy ideas. The question is can we unify on common core principles that make our party? And, by the way, the principles that built this country. 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