House Speaker Paul Ryan has criticized his party's presidential front-runner Donald Trump on banning Muslims and not speaking out as forcefully as he would like against white supremacist supporters, but he assured CNBC's John Harwood on Thursday he will be able to work with Trump if he wins the Oval Office.
"We'll make it work if it happens," Ryan said on CNBC.com's
"Speakeasy with John Harwood."
"I'm going to speak my mind," Ryan said "I'm going to defend conservatism as I understand it. I'm going to defend our ideas as the Republican Party. But we're going to have to work with whoever our nominee is."
Harwood asked if Ryan is looking at funding Trump's border wall as part of his agenda, but Ryan quickly noted that "we're not going to pay for that, recall?"
Trump has said he will make Mexico pay for the wall he proposes.
Ryan said that he believes Republican voters do care about trade and entitlement reform even though Trump has proposed leaving Social Security alone and scrapping bad trade deals.
"We are in a global economy, whether we like it or not," Ryan said. "And we believe, I believe, that America should be at the table of writing the rules of the global economy instead of China."
Americans don't want "no trade deals," but "good trade deals," Ryan said. As for Social Security, he said changes will have to be made for younger people to avoid the fund going bankrupt.
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