Days after Trump’s attacks on NM governor, he now ‘respects’ her and wants endorsement

It took just nine days for Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party, to flip-flop on his opinion of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

First, the nation’s first Latina governor was “not doing the job,”as Trump said in his speech last Tuesday in Albuquerque when hesuggested he should run for governor of the state to “get this place going.”

But in an interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican Thursday, Trump changed his mind and said he wants Gov. Martinez’s endorsement.

“I respect her. I have always liked her,” he told the New Mexican.

The governor has skirted around questions for months when it comes to endorsing Trump. She is the head of the Republican Governors Association, and Democrats have long pressured her to decide one way or another on Trump as the head of the powerful GOP organization.

Gov. Martinez brushed off Trump’s comments the day after his Albuquerque rally, saying they don’t affect her, and remained committed to her noncommittal stance.

“We deserve to hear from a presidential candidate what they are going to do to deal with the issues facing New Mexico. That was not discussed [at the Trump rally],” she told KOB the day after Trump was in Albuquerque, further offering only that she will not be voting for Hillary Clinton.

On Wednesday, she also said she would not be voting for former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate.

Earlier in the campaign season, Martinez lambasted Trump for comments he made about Mexican immigrants and building a wall at the border.

Trump’s call to the New Mexican came shortly after he received an endorsement from another longtime opponent within his party: House Speaker Paul Ryan. It also comes days after he attacked journalists for probing his donations to veterans groups.

He also said Thursday he is not looking to pay himself back for the $55 million he’s loaned his campaign so far, despite embarking last week on a venture to raise $1 billion by the fall. A $10,000 per head fundraiser was held in Albuquerque ahead of his rally at the city’s convention center.

Martinez will hold a vote as a delegate at June’s National Republican Convention, which she previously said she would not attend, but changed her mind on in early May.