As a congressman, Paul Ryan shamelessly ran cover for Trump. But in an interview with Politico’s Tim Alberta, the former House Speaker made it clear what he thought of the president.

BY ERIC LUTZ

JULY 11, 2019

Ryan makes clear in Alberta’s book that he knew Trump to be an unqualified jackass. In one anecdote, the House Speaker receives an early-morning phone call from then-chief of staff Reince Priebus asking him to read a tweet the president had just fired off.

“Terrible!” Trump wrote. “Just found out that [Barack Obama] had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

The tweet, offered without proof or basis in reality, sent Ryan into “maniacal, punch-drunk laughter,” according to Alberta. This behind-the-scenes Ryan hardly squares with the public Ryan, who repeatedly came to the president’s defense and downplayed his maddening Twitter addiction. “I actually don't pay that much attention to it,” Ryan once said of the president’s incessant shitposting.