Donald Trump Hasn't Decided If He'll Support Paul Ryan In Primary

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he isn't sure whether he'll support Paul Ryan in next Tuesday's congressional primary election.

“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country,” Trump told the Washington Post. “We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet.”

It's unclear exactly how much a Trump endorsement of Ryan's challenger, Paul Nehlen, would actually hurt Ryan.

Trump lost Wisconsin's presidential primary by more than 13 percent in April. Trump took an even bigger percentage loss in Ryan's district, falling by nearly 30 percent.

A Ryan campaign spokesman seemed to acknowledge as much in a statement after the Post's story went live.

"Neither Speaker Ryan nor anyone on his team has ever asked for Donald Trump's endorsement," Zack Roday said. "And we are confident in a victory next week regardless."

If Trump's non-endorsement sounds familiar, it should.

Those are almost the exact same words Ryan, the speaker of the house and arguably the most prominent Republican lawmaker in the country, used earlier this year when he was waffling on formally endorsing Trump for president.

"I hope to support our nominee," Ryan said in May. "I'm just not there right now. We have work to do. Our nominee has work to do."

Ever since Ryan did endorse Trump, though, he's seemingly bent over backwards to stick with Trump through all of his gaffes on the campaign trail. He said Trump was "racist" when Trump called out a federal judge, criticized Trump's feud with the Muslim parents of a slain American soldier and defended NATO as Trump threatens to make nations pay up before the United States will step in to protect them.

But Ryan never rescinded his endorsement.

Nehlen has become something of a Trump cheerleader in the last few days. Nehlen has supported Trump during his feud with the Gold Star family, and Trump thanked Nehlen on Monday night in a message to his more than 10 million Twitter followers.

“[Ryan’s] opponent is a big fan of what I’m saying — big fan,” Trump told the Post. “His opponent, who’s running a very good campaign, obviously, I’ve heard — his opponent sent me a very scholarly and well thought out letter yesterday and all I did was say thank you very much for your very nice letter. You saw my statement.”

Trump's comments come on the same day that President Obama called out key GOP leaders for sticking by Trump's side.

"The question they have to ask themselves is: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?" Obama said. "There has to be a point at which you say, 'Enough.'"

Image via Rick Uldrichs, Patch