House Speaker Paul Ryan Allegedly Retiring After 2018 Elections

The political career of House Speaker Paul Ryan may soon come to an end, if rumors prove true. Ryan, the Republican Congressman from the first district of Wisconsin, has apparently told some people closest to him that he is planning on retiring after his term as Speaker of the House ends.

Ryan apparently told a few of his closest confidants that he will be retiring right after the congressional elections, according to Politico Magazine. This rumor means Ryan will no longer run for a government position in the 2018 midterm elections, which will be held on November.

Ryan is said to have unveiled his plans to a small circle of his closest family and friends, as well as his staff. Politico said that Ryan asked the people in this small group for advice on his political career, and apparently he is now leaning on making his current term as House Speaker his final one.

Paul Ryan is allegedly on a “soul searching” mood regarding the next step of his political career, per CNN. Having a controversial president such as Donald Trump has supposedly taken a toll on Ryan. In fact, CNN said Ryan is suffering from a bout of “Trump-haustion,” which led him to question his desire to continue on as the House Speaker or as a member of Congress, for that matter.

Rumors of retirement have hounded Ryan for quite some time now. As Huffington Post reported, some quarters believe that Ryan is only waiting for the tax bill to be done and over with before he finally calls it quits. There are also those who think Ryan does not enjoy being the House Speaker, especially considering that he didn’t want the speakership in the first place.

“There’s a whole lot of rumors and speculations that the speaker may step aside,” said a member of the Republican Party who wished to remain anonymous. The fact that these people refuse to say something in public is quite “telling,” Huffington Post noted.

Paul Ryan is not retiring simply because he thinks his work is done once the tax bill pushes through, according to his close associates. The main reason why Ryan is contemplating retiring is because of his family. His job as a politician has affected his family negatively and Ryan is supposedly wary of causing them more stress.

There’s a lot of discussion going on right now with regards to the possible retirement of Ryan. While a number of people, including his fellow Republicans, supposedly believe that Ryan is indeed retiring, Ryan himself contradicted this.

Ryan just finished addressing a crowd on Thursday and was walking away from the podium when a reporter asked him if he was retiring.

“I ain’t goin’ anywhere,” Ryan said.

Ryan spokesperson AshLee Strong also said that the retirement rumors are “pure speculation.”

“As the speaker himself said today, he’s not going anywhere any time soon,” said Strong.

Ryan also assured Trump, who called the House Speaker after the Politico story was published, that he wasn’t “going anywhere,” an aide said.