Those who claim that House Speaker Paul Ryan did something cynical or self-interested by refusing to endorse Donald Trump last week were wrong. Ryan is caught in a terrible trap in which he is trying to reconcile two conflicting obligations. As one of the two highest-ranking Republican officeholders in the country, he feels he cannot stand aloof from the presidential election against a Democrat that threatens to give us another four years of the Obama administration even if his party’s nominee appalls him. I think he means it when he says he’d like to unify Republicans as much as it is possible. But he also knows that he cannot lend his name and reputation to a candidate whose protectionist and isolationist stands are antithetical to everything that Ryan believes in and whose behavior disgraces the GOP. That leaves the political world wondering how he can possibly reconcile these two things when he meets with Trump tomorrow.

The short answer to that question is that he can’t.