Three Questions About the Trump-Ryan Meeting

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Three questions heading into this morning's Ryan-Trump meeting

At 9:00 am ET at the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan -- after Ryan refused to endorse Trump last week (at least for now). "What we are trying to do is to be as constructive as possible, to have a real unification," Ryan told reporters yesterday, per NBC's Andrew Rafferty. "To pretend we're unified without actually unifying, then we go into the fall at half strength," he added. "This election is too important to go into an election at half strength." There are three questions we have heading into this morning's meeting:

• Does Ryan end up endorsing? That we're even asking this question is an extraordinary development. Just think if then-House Speaker John Boehner had withheld an endorsement -- even for a week -- for Mitt Romney after he became the party's presumptive nominee in 2012. Or if Nancy Pelosi had done the same to do Barack Obama in '08 after his own bruising campaign vs. Hillary Clinton.
• Does Ryan remain chair of the GOP convention in July? It's hard to see that happening if Ryan continues to withhold his endorsement. And Ryan recently gave Trump an out here, saying that the GOP's presumptive nominee is free to pick a new convention chair. "He's the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention," Ryan said earlier this week.
• Is Ryan making a play beyond this November? That is one of the theories why he's not eager to jump on the Trump Train - either to help pick up the pieces if Republicans lose in November, or to get a head start on the next presidential election. "He and his staff play down talk of a 2020 run for the White House, but how Mr. Ryan manages Mr. Trump over the next six months will play a major role in shaping Mr. Ryan's future," the New York Times writes. "Many of his colleagues are uneasy about Mr. Trump and grateful that the speaker is at least buying them time to determine how to handle the political equivalent of a live grenade."
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