Newt Gingrich, speaker of the house of Trump

In a recent phone interview, he made little effort to conceal his ambitions when I asked him if he was jockeying for a place in the intellectual vanguard of Trumpism. “I think I’m very happy to try to explain it,” he replied. “I think there’s a lot more substance there underneath the noise, but it doesn’t get covered because this is a town that loves noise.”…

Advertisement

“Total energy,” he told me when I asked what he admired about Trump. “[He’s] more energetic than any president since Theodore Roosevelt.” And then: “It’s not an accident that he put Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office. He identifies with Andrew Jackson as a disruptive figure.”…

Trump is “too restless,” Gingrich told me, and “not introspective.” Though he possesses great talent for marketing, he lacks either the desire or the ability to persuade his constituents through education. “Reagan understood that a major component of his job was being an educator and moving the country—but you don’t really get that out of Trump yet.”

As luck would have it, though, these presidential shortcomings are precisely the kind that could be helped by someone like Newt Gingrich—a PhD-wielding history buff who excels at long, discursive think-tank speeches, and has written more than two dozen books. Indeed, if Gingrich views Trump as a world-class vessel, he seems to view himself as just the person to fill it.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement