Boehner: Republicans ‘taking a nap’ while Trump has taken over party

Former House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the Republican Party that he knew for decades doesn’t exist anymore.

“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kinda taking a nap somewhere.”

Speaking on stage at the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan while sipping a Bloody Mary, the Ohio Republican, who retired mid-term in 2015, said he was always friendly with Donald Trump, but didn’t expect him to win the 2016 election.

“Donald Trump, who I know well, was one of my supporters. When I was speaker and I was having a rough week, Trump would call me, pat me on the back, cheer me up. We played a lot of golf together,” Boehner said. “But president? Really? I never quite saw this. . . . But the guy ran, the guy won.”

Boehner joked that even Trump himself didn’t think he’d win. “I think Donald Trump promised Melania that he would not win. She didn’t have to worry about ever living in the White House. It’s probably why she doesn’t look real happy every day. But, well, maybe one reason,” he said.

Boehner, who now sits on the board of a cannabis company, said his stances have evolved since he left Congress, where he staunchly opposed marijuana legalization and gay rights.

“People can change their views,” he said. “Take the whole gay rights issue. I, like tens of millions of Americans, have done this transformational shift in terms of how we view these things. You have a hard time doing this and saying things like this when you’re in elected office. But I found myself looking at that situation entirely differently than I did 10 years ago. Frankly, not much different in terms of the thought process, the movement, in terms of how I look at cannabis.”