CONGRESS/PAUL RYAN/TRUMP PEOPLE: “U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not seek re-election and will leave his post at the start of 2019, further unsettling a Republican Party rocked by Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency ahead of November’s pivotal congressional elections. Ryan, who has had an often-strained relationship with Trump but helped the president achieve his biggest legislative victory in the form of major tax cuts in December, made the announcement on Wednesday [4-11-18], portraying it as a decision to spend more time with his family after serving two decades in the House. His action sets up a distracting House leadership succession struggle while Republicans are trying to fend off Democratic efforts to seize control of Congress in the mid-term elections.”
–Richard Cowan, Susan Cornwell, “Senior House Republican Ryan to quit in latest Washington upheaval,” Reuters, April 11, 2018 3:03pm