Trump exploded in rage at Paul Ryan after he denounced Charlottesville white supremacists: Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book on the end of the Trump presidency claims that former President Donald Trump erupted in anger at former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan because he denounced the white nationalists who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
According to Business Insider, Woodward and Costa report that Trump called Ryan shortly after the then-House Speaker sent out a tweet condemning white supremacists in the summer of 2017.
Ryan tried to explain to Trump that, as president of the United States, he had a duty to condemn neo-Nazis -- but Trump wouldn't hear of it.
"These people love me," Trump told Ryan, according to Woodward and Costa. "These are my people. I can't backstab the people who support me."
Trump infamously claimed after the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally that there were some "very fine people" attending, even though the rally was explicitly marketed as a white nationalist event that featured men carrying tiki torches and chanting, "Jews will not replace us!"
When Ryan confronted Trump over this, the former president reportedly doubled down.
"Well, yeah, there's some bad people," Trump said about the neo-Nazis. "I get that. I'm not for that. I'm against all that. But there's some of those people who are for me. Some of them are good people."