In what has become almost a ritualistic rite of passage during the 2012 GOP presidential primary, Newt Gingrich, who has surged to the top of nearly every national and state poll, will meet with Donald Trump on Monday, the day Trump’s book, Time To Get Tough, hits stores.
Gingrich has filled the populist space in the polls that Trump ushered in when Trump combined his harsh rhetoric toward Obama while embracing populist economic messages that endeared himself to Tea Party crowds.
According to Politico, which first reported the story, Trump would like to endorse a candidate during the primary season.
Trump has spoken favorably of Gingrich and has also noted that Gingrich is a member of one of his Trump National Golf Clubs.
Trump’s endorsement may help Gingrich in three ways. First, it may help him appeal even more to the Tea Party wing of the GOP that Gingrich has aggressively courted. Second, Trump’s endorsement would invite scorn and ridicule from the mainstream media, which would set Gingrich up as an antagonist against an institution, the mainstream press, that rank and file conservative voters tend to despise. Gingrich’s comeback can be traced back to when he started pugnaciously snarling at questions posed by members of the elite media and a Trump endorsement would give Gingrich another opportunity to jostle and spar with the media, something Gingrich does with relish and better than anyone next to Sarah Palin.
And third, a Trump endorsement of Gingrich would almost surely ensure that should Gingrich win the nomination, Trump would not run as an independent candidate in the general election, something Trump and his advisers have repeatedly threatened he would do if Trump was not satisfied with the Republican nominee.
