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The Private Ryan

In remarks at a private gathering in Wyoming, the former House speaker offered his most unvarnished commentary yet on America’s looming fiscal crisis, his beef with Trump’s tariffs, and how to get the country back on track. By the end, the audience was even joking that he should take another run at the White House.

Paul Ryan
To circumvent congressional inaction, Ryan suggested, would require an Obama-era political construct: a bipartisan congressional commission empowered to reduce the national debt. Photo: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
September 7, 2025

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Last week, I offered my first dispatch from The Summit in beautiful Saratoga, Wyoming—an idyllic retreat for business leaders, former governors, senators, public intellectuals, and the like. The late Bruce White, founder of White Lodging, one of the country’s largest hotel management companies, had long desired to create something akin to Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley conference at his Brush Creek Ranch—a vision that his widow, Beth, has now expertly fulfilled. It was a delight to hear from the likes of Jim Bullard, Joe Manchin, and Mitch Daniels, among many others, over the course of the inaugural three-day event.