Paul Ryan says he will vote for Donald Trump

JANESVILLE, Wis., June 2 (UPI) -- House Speak Paul Ryan said in a column submitted to a Wisconsin newspaper that he will vote for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, ending weeks of speculation about whether the nation's highest-ranking elected Republican would support his party's standard bearer in November's presidental election.

Ryan said in the days after Trump became the presumptive nominee he was "not ready" to unite behind the controversial billionaire who took the GOP primary by storm, citing policy and stylistic differences.

"When he sealed the nomination, I could not offer my support for Donald Trump before discussing policies and basic principles," Ryan wrote in the piece submitted Thursday to The Gazette, of Janesville, Wis., his hometown newspaper.

Now, Ryan said he's convinced Trump is the best candidate to further the House GOP caucus' ambitious agenda after 2016.

"I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people's lives. That's why I'll be voting for him this fall," Ryan wrote. "It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement."