Newt Gingrich is often viewed as a kind of Trump precursor. Is that accurate?
Yes and no. If you look at the Contract for America, it isn’t a reactionary wish list; it is primarily a CL/PBP agenda for smaller government. Even the items that echo Trump’s statements about “the swamp” sound like they are coming from a CL perspective. In that sense, the two are quite different. Trump never had any real interest in reducing the size of government; he just wanted to keep the reactionary base happy and own the libs.
On the other hand, Gingrich was the first real bomb thrower in Washington in my lifetime. His play to the conservative media and take no prisoners style was very much like Trump’s; it isn’t a coincidence that he still supports Trump after the January 6 incident.
You could call him the Flight 93 Speaker. He broke the existing patterns of civility in the House and replaced them with . . . incivility and grandstanding. We’re still feeling the effects of that today.