A group of New Jersey eighth-grade students schooled House Speaker Paul Ryan over his unwillingness to critique President Trump.
About half of the more than 200 students from South Orange Middle School refused to pose for a photo with Ryan during a school trip to Washington, DC, last Thursday.
Matthew Malespina, 13, who waited across the street with other classmates declining to be in the picture with the Wisconsin Republican, said the school informed them the night before of the photo op on the Capitol steps.
“I was like, ‘Oh God, I’m not taking a picture with this man.’ I first texted my mom because my mom hates Paul Ryan as well,” Matthew told The Post on Sunday. “And I was saying to her, ‘Oh God, I can’t do this. I can’t take a picture with him.’ She said that was completely fine, just be respectful.”
Being in the photo wasn’t mandatory, Matthew said, so he was surprised by the number of students who agreed to turn out because of the lack of support among the students for Trump.
“Our school is pretty liberal. I only know three Trump supporters in our grade and there’s a lot people in our grade. So it’s fairly liberal. [Teachers] knew that a lot of people didn’t like Paul Ryan,” he said. “But they gave us the option. I was shocked by the number of people who wanted to join me and my friends to not take a picture of him. It was like half the grade.”
His mom, Elissa Malespina, said she’s proud of her son for standing up for his principles.
“I am proud of him that he chose to not do that and I am proud he did so in a respectful manner,” she told The Post. “Yes, he [Ryan] is the third-most powerful person in the nation, technically, but I don’t agree with his stance on a lot of things and neither does my child.”
Children that age “have the ability to make choices,” Elissa Malespina said of standing by her son’s decision, “and to make educated choices and they are not indoctrinated by their parents. And they have a good understanding of what’s going on in society. I respect children who chose to take a picture with him and also kids who don’t.”
Asked about her disagreements with Ryan, she quipped, “I don’t think we have enough time.”
But she ticked off her main gripes: not enough support for public education and library funding, the GOP health care plan that could mean 23 million fewer Americans without insurance, and his stance on LGBTQ rights.
“I have pre-existing conditions. My son has pre-existing conditions. My husband has pre-existing conditions that under this new law if my husband or I lose our jobs we might not be able to get health care, and that’s scary,” she said.
Ryan, who helped shepherd Trump’s plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare through the House, recently shrugged off the burgeoning investigations into the White House’s possible ties to Russia and the idea that the president referring to ousted FBI Director James Comey as a “nut job” could harm the GOP majority in Congress.
“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah is what I say about that stuff,” Ryan said during a recent radio interview.
Matthew said Ryan “probably” didn’t understand that half the kids were across the street peacefully protesting, and he was bothered that the speaker still posted a picture with the students on Instagram, titled “Got that #FridayFeeling.”
”I was disgusted. What he wrote was hilarious. He’s [with] a bunch of people who don’t really like him and says ‘I got that Friday Feeling.’ And that’s what I was really annoyed about it. If he realized a lot of people didn’t take a picture of him and most people in that picture didn’t like him, which is kind of ironic,” Matthew said.
A spokesman for Ryan said the speaker “always appreciates the opportunity to welcome students to the Capitol.”