House Speaker Paul Ryan: Trump is not an authoritarian

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that he does not agree with critics of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump who have labeled Trump authoritarian or fascist.

"I don't see it that way," Ryan told reporters in the Capitol. He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with critics such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called Trump authoritarian, and Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto, who has likened Trump's "strident tone" to the ascent of 1930s fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Ryan also said he was not worried that the Republican-majority House of Representatives might switch to Democratic control as a result of the November elections. "I'm not concerned about the House flipping because we are in control of our own actions."

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)