Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explained his Big Trump, Little Trump analogy during an interview conducted Tuesday with the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker.
Gingrich said there’s a side of Little Trump’s personality that’s “very sensitive, particularly to anything which attacks his own sense of integrity or his own sense of respectability, and he reacts very intensely, almost uncontrollably, to those kinds of situations.”
“I think that’s a weakness,” he said on the “Examining Politics” podcast. “I hope he grows out of it.”
.. Gingrich first broached the tale of two Trumps in an interview with Fox Business Network last week, when he called Little Trump “frankly pathetic” for being upset over not getting a congratulatory phone call from House Speaker Paul Ryan following the second presidential debate.
.. “The big Trump is a historic figure talking about historic ideas. The little Trump gets involved at a personality level,” he said, pointing to the real estate mogul’s tweet in which he blasted “SNL” for its “hit job” and called for the “boring and unfunny show” to “retire.”
Even Trump’s Supporters Are Wary of ‘Rigged’ Rhetoric
Although Trump has campaigned as a candidate who will shake up the system and clean out a corrupt status quo, his most controversial remarks have not been broadsides at the system itself, but rather have been attacks on people: Megyn Kelly, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Khizr and Ghazala Khan. These personal attacks have earned Trump widespread condemnation, but his inner circle has kept quiet and maintained a stiff upper lip. Even Trump’s attacks on the appearance of the women who have accused him of sexual assault—or on Hillary Clinton’s appearance—have not earned this sort of backlash within the inner ranks.
Maybe that’s not surprising; Trump can, and has, vowed to topple nearly every pillar of American bipartisan foreign-policy consensus, but how many people are really engaged enough to notice and care? But then what makes the attack on elections different?
One possibility is that people like Conway, Pence, Scott, and Husted may support Trump and approve of his assaults on certain elements of the status quo, but they are also at heart political professionals who have spent their life in the arena. It’s one thing to break policy taboos, but it’s a different sort of threat to tear down the entire edifice.
Trump’s Clueless about Civics
He demonstrated staggering ignorance of what the judiciary branch does with an emphatic reference to a “bill” that several federal judges had “signed.” He seems to believe that the president can jail a political foe, hire and fire generals at will, and command the military to break the law.
He’s clueless about free speech. He threatened to sue Ted Cruz for showing a video of his actual, undisputed pro-abortion comments from the past. After the conservative journalist Rich Lowry assessed his candidacy unkindly, Trump suggested that the Federal Communications Commission fine him.
The Trump Demogorgon devours Paul Ryan
Ryan took issue with Trump’s talk about rigged elections and other remarks that could induce violence on and after Election Day. His office released a statement saying he is “fully confident” in election integrity. Trump swiped at Ryan in a series of tweets: “Paul Ryan, always fighting the Republican nominee! . . . Paul Ryan, a man who doesn’t know how to win (including failed run four years ago). . . . Paul Ryan does zilch!”
And it’s not just Ryan who lost control. Newt Gingrich, a Trump defender, tried to argue Sunday on ABC that Trump’s major complaint about the election being rigged “is not at the poll level” but with the media.
.. Even Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, can’t bring the monster to heel. “We will absolutely accept the results of the election,”
.. Trump’s depredations have left Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican in the land, in a no-win situation. He could revoke his Trump endorsement, but this would require resigning the speakership, because a majority of GOP caucus members are from heavily conservative districts where Trump is popular. They, like Trump and his legions, are already furious with Ryan, and his criticism of Trump only makes them angrier. I’m told Ryan considered resigning, but this would accomplish little beyond generating more chaos in an already ungovernable GOP caucus.