If you’ve been following Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, then you already know that former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has become the most recent high-profile figure to draw the scorn of the commander-in-chief. President Trump blasted Paul Ryan several times on Twitter, noting:
Paul Ryan, the failed V.P. candidate & former Speaker of the House, whose record of achievement was atrocious (except during my first two years as President), ultimately became a long running lame duck failure, leaving his Party in the lurch both as a fundraiser & leader……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
Trump also claimed that Ryan never knew how to go after Democrats and that when Mitt Romney chose Ryan as VP, it was “the end of that Presidential run.” Trump further argued that when visiting Wisconsin, he received a standing ovation while Ryan was booed off stage and that he “couldn’t get him [Ryan] out of Congress fast enough!”
The torrent of insults is one of the strongest launched by President Trump in recent memory. So why are the former colleagues at odds? Turns out that Paul Ryan has been putting President Trump on blast in an upcoming book, “American Carnage,” by journalist Tim Alberta.
Alberta claims that Ryan left Congress precisely because he couldn’t bear the thought of working with Trump for two more years. He further claims that Ryan saw retirement as an “escape hatch” and that Trump was ignorant of politics. Alberta quoted Ryan as saying:
“I told myself I gotta have a relationship with this guy to help him get his mind right. Because, I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government… I wanted to scold him all the time.”
Now the president and his supporters are firing back. Ultimately, Ryan left a mixed legacy in Congress. While Ryan frequently claimed to be a fiscal Conservative, his policies as Speaker of the House have greatly expanded the national deficit and debt levels.
