Donald Trump, GOP leaders hold ‘positive’ talks

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fell short of winning an endorsement from House speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday after a high-stakes bid to get the party leadership behind his divisive White House run.

Mr Trump and Mr Ryan issued a joint statement after the face-to-face meeting calling it a “positive step toward unification” and stressing the need to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November elections.

But Mr Ryan, who declared last week that he was “just not ready” to support Mr Trump as the party’s flagbearer, withheld his endorsement of the New York billionaire.

“I think this is going in a positive direction and I think this is a first very encouraging meeting,” he told reporters afterward. “But again in 45 minutes you don’t litigate all of the processes and all the issues and the principles that we are talking about.”

In the joint statement, the two said: “While we were honest about our few differences, we recognise that there are also many important areas of common ground.”

“We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal,” they said.

Their talks also included Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, and were followed by a broader meeting between Mr Trump and House GOP leaders.

Mr Priebus said he had held a “great” meeting with Mr Trump on Thursday.

The real estate mogul, who has never run for elective office before, was scheduled to meet later on Thursday with his party’s Senate leaders.

Concerns about the tone and substance of Mr Trump’s campaign have trickled down to many in the congressional rank and file who fear a Trump nomination could doom their efforts to win the presidency and hold the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Charlie Dent, a moderate House Republican who was not in Thursday’s meetings, told reporters the session with House leaders was “an opportunity to clear the air.”