Paul Ryan Considering Retirement at End of Term

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) may be on his way out of Congress after the end of this term.

Sources close to Ryan have confirmed to Breitbart News that the Speaker is considering retiring after nine terms in the House.

Thursday, Politico’s news magazine published an extensive report strongly reinforcing this speculation. According to Politico, “In recent interviews with three dozen people who know the speaker—fellow lawmakers, congressional and administration aides, conservative intellectuals and Republican lobbyists—not a single person believed Ryan will stay in Congress past 2018.”

The Politico piece claims Ryan “was tiring of D.C. even before reluctantly accepting the speakership” and that he “told his predecessor, John Boehner, that it would be his last job in politics — and that it wasn’t a long-term proposition.”

But Politico’s sources admit Ryan’s tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump, whose candidacy and victory threw Ryan’s party into disarray and alienated his core pro-business constituency, may be the real motive behind Ryan’s decision not to run again. “The best part of this scenario, people close to the speaker emphasize: He wouldn’t have to share the ballot with Trump again in 2020,” Politico writes.

The piece further speculates on why no official  announcement has been despite the apparently unanimous understanding he will leave Washington:

The speaker can’t afford to admit he’s a lame-duck — his fundraising capacity and dealmaking leverage would be vastly diminished, making the House all the more difficult to govern. When asked at the end of a Thursday morning press conference if he was leaving soon, Ryan shot a quick “no” over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

Ryan’s tenure as speaker, especially since he found himself at the head of a Republican majority House match with GOP control of the Senate and White House, has been disappointing to many different factions within the party. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, now in conference, will represent the sole major legislative achievement of this period of GOP dominance should it become law. Missteps on the long-time Republican goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare and the complete disregard of meaningful immigration legislation may come to define Ryan’s tenure as Speaker.