Political feat: Can Speaker Ryan and GOP work with Trump?

GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan said the president-elect Donald Trump “just earned a mandate.” However, whether Trump’s plans for a national infrastructure rebuilding program dovetail with Ryan’s ideas of tax reform remains to be seen.

“Now Donald Trump will lead a unified Republican government,” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday from his home in Wisconsin. “Most incredible political feat I’ve seen in my lifetime.” 

He said the president-elect was able to reach out to people nationwide.

“Donald Trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard. He connected in ways with people that no else else did,” Ryan said, according to The Hill.

“We will work hand-in-hand” on the GOP agenda, he added.

Dubbed the Better Way, the agenda includes tax cuts for all, a comprehensive tax overhaul, a dismantling of Obamacare, a roll back of Obama’s energy policies and his regulatory agenda, national security and spending cuts.

The White House on Wednesday said President Obama was concerned about stripping projections from the healthcare law.

Trump, however, didn’t campaign as a traditional Republican. He opposed free-trade deals and cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and he was often critical of Washington, and repeatedly talked of “draining the swamp.”

Ryan also distanced himself from Trump during the campaign, particularly over the release of a 2005 video of Trump bragging about groping women.

During this victory speech in New York, Trump said it was time “for Americans to bind the wounds of division."

“We have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation it is time for us to come together as one united people, it’s time,” Trump said to a room of supporters, who chanted “USA! USA!”

“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me,” said Trump.

Specifically he said the country would “embark on a project of national growth and renewal.”

“Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Trump said.

“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals, we are going to rebuild our infrastructure which will become second to none and will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. We will also finally take care of our great veterans.”

Whether Ryan’s favored tax cuts plan will work with the president-elect’s agenda of a $5 billion infrastructure rebuilding bill is unknown.

“That’s not in the Better Way agenda,” Ryan said about the infrastructure bill in October, according to Bloomberg.

On Wednesday, Ryan told reporters, “We’re all on the same page on these things. I think our relationship is fine. I think we’re going to hit the ground running. We have already talked about getting our transitions working together.”