Trump: Ryan can get along with me or ‘pay a big price’

by Ben Kamisar - 03/01/16 10:21 PM ET

Donald Trump warned Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that he’ll have to pay the price if he doesn’t get along with a President Trump after Ryan repudiated him for failing to disavow backing from David Duke.

“I’m going to get along great with Congress. Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him,” the front-runner for his party’s nomination said during his Super Tuesday speech. “And if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price.”

{mosads}The comments came after Trump had a huge night on Super Tuesday, racking up victories in Massachusetts, Arkansas, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

The real estate mogul has had a tempestuous relationship with party leaders, including Ryan, who previously had criticized Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the nation.

On Tuesday, without naming Trump, the Speaker criticized Trump over the controversy surrounding Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who encouraged his followers to back the celebrity billionaire.

“I try to stay out of the ups and downs of the primary, but I’ve also said when I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and a country, I will speak up,” Ryan said.

“If a person wants to be the nominee of the party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.”

Trump said he didn’t understand a question during a CNN interview about Duke because of a bad earpiece.

Trump’s rise in the presidential election has repeatedly caused discomfort for GOP office-holders, many of whom moved to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in the last week.

Tags Donald Trump Marco Rubio Paul Ryan