--- title: Donald Trump: Paul Ryan Calls Him a 'Unique' GOP Nominee description: Paul Ryan said his fellow Republicans should follow their "conscience" when it comes to whether or not they support Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/ author: Brendan Dorsey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-17T14:58:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:20.766Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ryan Says Trump's Ascension Is 'a Very Strange Situation' og:description: He calls Trump "a very unique nominee" og:url: https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt455623ae88887c91/698896bf656a3f564ebcbd34/paul-ryan-judge-racism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds Weekly News Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ryan Says Trump's Ascension Is 'a Very Strange Situation' twitter:description: He calls Trump "a very unique nominee" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt455623ae88887c91/698896bf656a3f564ebcbd34/paul-ryan-judge-racism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan Says Donald Trump's Ascension Is 'a Very Strange Situation' > 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 [Brendan Dorsey](https://time.com/author/brendan-dorsey/) ## Brendan Dorsey Jun 17, 2016 2:58 PM UTC  U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on May 26, 2016. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on May 26, 2016. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Brendan Dorsey](https://time.com/author/brendan-dorsey/) ## Brendan Dorsey Jun 17, 2016 2:58 PM UTC House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a new interview that his fellow Republicans should follow their “conscience” when it comes to whether or not they support Donald Trump, the latest comments in his [struggle](http://time.com/4371758/paul-ryan-donald-trump-be-quiet/) to [back the presumptive GOP nominee](http://time.com/4355647/paul-ryan-donald-trump-vote-endorsement/) [without fully embracing him.](http://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/) “This a very strange situation,” Ryan said in an interview that will air Sunday on [NBC’s _Meet the Press_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/first-read-ryan-instructs-republicans-follow-their-conscience-trump-n594291). “\[Trump is\] a very unique nominee.” Ryan said he felt a responsibility to keep the party unified. “But I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party,” he said. “Because you know what I know that’ll do? That’ll definitely knock us out of the White House.” \[[_NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/first-read-ryan-instructs-republicans-follow-their-conscience-trump-n594291)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan Says Donald Trump's Ascension Is 'a Very Strange Situation'","datePublished":"2016-06-17T14:58:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:20.766Z","description":"He calls Trump \"a very unique nominee\"","url":"https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt455623ae88887c91/698896bf656a3f564ebcbd34/paul-ryan-judge-racism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brendan Dorsey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/brendan-dorsey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt455623ae88887c91/698896bf656a3f564ebcbd34/paul-ryan-judge-racism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds Weekly News Conference","caption":"U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on May 26, 2016.","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4373074/paul-ryan-donald-trump/","name":"Paul Ryan Says Donald Trump's Ascension Is 'a Very Strange Situation'"}}]}] ```