Former House Speaker Paul Ryan viewed retirement as an "escape hatch" from two more years working under President Trump, according to Tim Alberta's new book "American Carnage," per an early copy obtained by the Washington Post.

"Those of us around him really helped to stop him from making bad decisions. All the time.... We helped him make much better decisions, which were contrary to kind of what his knee-jerk reaction was. Now I think he's making some of these knee-jerk reactions."

Yes, but: Ryan, who sat down for multiple conversations with Alberta, largely publicly fell in line with the president during his tenure as House speaker as "the book details how many Republicans who once criticized Trump quickly changed their tune after his election," per the Post.

Ryan explained his decision, according to the Post: "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."

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