For most of 2016, the Moon Man had been one of Trump’s most loyal surrogates, which led many to speculate that Gingrich was being considered for the number two slot. Who better, after all, to help lead the charge in a campaign that will be all about unearthing Clinton scandals from two decades ago?
Then the dream suddenly seemed to be dead. Gingrich, like pretty much everyone inside the Republican Party, has been extremely critical of Trump’s racist remarks about the American-born Hispanic judge who is overseeing a class-action lawsuit against Trump University. Last week, Gingrich said, “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.” One of Trump’s privileged media organs, the tin foil review site InfoWars, pushed back, suggested that Gingrich was the establishment’s choice and that Trump had rejected $200 million from Sheldon Adelson and others to put him on the ticket.
On Wednesday, though, Gingrich seemed to be trying to repair things. Appearing at the 2016 BIO International Convention in San Francisco, Gingrich called Trump an “absurd amateur” and said he “made a really stupid mistake last week, but also that it “took him about three days to learn” and that Trump could win the election. Gingrich is someone who, like Trump, has a habit of thinking out loud, and it seems like he’s trying to return to the Trump fold after spending a week in the woods.