Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan could be "playing one of the great games of all time" with his reluctance to jump into the race for job of House Speaker, Republican presidential contender Donald Trump says.
In
an interview with CBS News' "Face The Nation" to air Sunday, the real estate billionaire – who believes a "very much
tougher voice" is needed for the Speaker job being vacated by Ohio Rep. John Boehner – gave the House Ways and Means chairman a tepid thumbs-up for the post, criticizing his
entitlement reforms – and the 2012 GOP presidential ticket he shared with Mitt Romney.
"I would be okay" with Ryan, Trump said. "I would be okay."
"It may not be him," he quickly added. "I mean, they have a couple of people in there, I'm not going to mention names. But people I know that are really tough and really smart. And right now, that's what we need because the Republicans never win… they never win."
"Everything, whether it's on Obamacare, whether it's on the debt ceiling, no matter what we have, there's never, ever a victory. So we need a toughness and we just don't have there right now."
A
clip of the Sunday interview was posted by CBS News on Friday.
"I think he doesn't want it very badly, but you never know," Trump said.
"Maybe he's playing one of the great games of all time. It is Speaker of the House, I mean, it's a great position. But he doesn't seem to want it."
"But I'll bet you that if it was actually offered to him, he would take it," Trump predicted.
Ryan is
now considering a bid for a leadership job that would place him second in the line of presidential succession after coming under
increasing pressure to enter the race since Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly dropped out Thursday.
Trump called Ryan "somebody that probably that could get good support."
"I think he's strong," he said, adding, however, he disagrees with Ryan's position on entitlements.
"I think that when Mitt Romney chose him last time, it was a tough choice because he's been so anti-Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, in a sense," Trump said.
"You know, he would say he hasn't been, but they certainly played that up hard. And that was a disastrous campaign for a lot of reasons," Trump said. "But Paul Ryan's a good man. I know him very little, but I think he's a very good person."
Trump has waded hip-deep into the House Speaker race, contending
he played a part in McCarthy's decision to drop out.
"I've been taking a little bit of credit because people have been giving me credit on [my Twitter feed]," he said again on "Face The Nation."
"They're saying that I spoke up against him only because it's a question of toughness," Trump explained. "He didn't seem like that. We need toughness. We need fists, we need the brainpower, and we need toughness."
"When he made the statement on Benghazi, it was a tough statement," Trump said. "It was a really bad statement for Republicans, and even for the nation in a sense. Because he so disparaged what's going on."
"And I happen to believe that what they're doing is the right thing and they're doing it for the right reason," he added.
"But it was so disparaging to what's taking place with respect to Hillary Clinton and that whole fiasco that maybe she created. And I didn't like seeing that."
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