Gingrich: Trump Effect a 'Political Revolution'

The primary significance of Ohio's special election and the other state primaries on Tuesday is that President Donald Trump and his supporters are becoming the prevailing voice in the Republican Party, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich claimed.

"The biggest takeaway message from Tuesday's primaries and the Ohio special election is that the Republican Party is becoming President Trump's party," Gingrich wrote Saturday in an opinion piece for Fox News.

"Now President Trump has begun to grow a Trump Republican Party. The examples from Tuesday are striking, but this growth started earlier. In primary after primary, President Trump has proved to be a decisive voice," he added.

Gingrich called the Tuesday wins of Republican Troy Balderson, who appears to have enjoyed a narrow win against Democrat Danny O'Connor in Ohio's 12^th Congressional District, as well as GOP primary victories in close elections in Kansas, Georgia, Montana and South Carolina, the "fifth major achievement" of Trump's presidency. He outlined the other four achievements as:

• Along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump has "placed a record number of conservative, constitutionally minded judges on the federal bench."
• The president's deregulation efforts had "moved power out of Washington and liberated businesses to accelerate economic growth."
• The massive tax reform law passed late last year had "created jobs and grown the economy much faster than any of the elites thought possible."
• Trump has begun the process of rebuilding the military after the administration of former President Barack Obama "spent eight years deliberately undermining it."

Gingrich said the groundwork would result in a Congress that would be more in line with the president's policies, while at the same time diminishing the voices of those who have worked to thwart his efforts.

"This is a very important long-term development because it means that in 2019 and beyond the president will have a Republican Party substantially more favorable to his policies. It also means that the never-Trumpers will gradually decline into a less noisy, less relevant part of American politics," he explained.

Gingrich also remarked at the "amazing" thing about what he termed "the Trump effect" was "how efficient it is," pointing out the president's success in turning out the vote in the Ohio election. He called the overall result of the president's influence a "political revolution."

"Simple tweets have helped nominate the GOP candidates for governor and congressional seats in state after state. With this kind of economy of effort, it is no wonder President Trump is doing so many things in parallel.

"In the process, the president is growing a Trump Republican Party that will turn the never-Trumpers into a fossilized remnant of bitter-enders that attract smaller and smaller audiences who pay less and less attention," he wrote.

"In short, this is what a political revolution looks like," Gingrich concluded.

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