Paul Ryan knocks Donald Trump as an 'authoritarian narcissist,' praises Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., bashed former President Donald Trump Wednesday as an “authoritarian narcissist.”

Ryan, who led the House under the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, said at a virtual event hosted by consulting company Teneo that Trump’s tendencies are “where narcissism takes him, which is whatever makes him popular, makes him feel good at any given moment.”

“He doesn’t think in classical liberal-conservative terms,” Ryan said. “He thinks in an authoritarian way. And he’s been able to get a big chunk of the Republican base to follow him because he’s the culture warrior.”

Trump has recently drawn criticism for mocking questions about authoritarianism and saying at multiple campaign stops that he wants to be a dictator "for one day"

Ryan during the event also praised former Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., two of the former president's most vocal critics.

After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Cheney and Kinzinger were among the handful of Republicans who voted to impeach the former president over the riot. The lawmakers were also on the congressional committee that investigated Jan. 6, which earned them rebuke from their GOP colleagues.

“I think Adam and Liz stepped out of the flow and called it out and, you know, paid for it. Paid for it with their careers,” Ryan said. Cheney was defeated by a Republican challenger in the 2022 midterms, and Kinzinger did not seek reelection the same year.

The one-time vice presidential nominee added that he thinks some Republican in Congress would take back their vote against impeaching Trump if they could.

“They thought after January 6th, he wasn’t going to have a comeback. He was dead, so they figured ‘I’m not going to take this heat, vote against this impeachment, because he’s gone anyway.’ But what’s happened is he’s been resurrected,” Ryan said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul Ryan knocks Donald Trump as a 'narcissist,' praises Liz Cheney