ROME—With Italy in lockdown as it struggles to contain the novel coronavirus, silence reigns in the streets. The tourists are gone. Most Italians are confined to their homes with little to do. But in an imposing villa on Janiculum hill, shaded by giant umbrella pine trees, one resident is far from idle.
“The Senate should insist on modifying the House anti-virus package. As passed by the House it is very anti-small business and will cripple the engine of job creation,” tweeted Newt Gingrich on Saturday. Then, eight minutes later: “The US should explore both activating the two US Navy hospital ships and leasing a number of cruise ships to provide intensive care centers.”
Gingrich—former speaker of the House, onetime candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and occasional confidant of Donald Trump—has been using the crisis to launch a sustained stream of policy proposals, running straight toward the panic, figuratively, with a basket of new, Gingrichian ideas.
He has been based in Rome since 2017, when his wife, Callista, a documentary filmmaker and bestselling author of children’s books, was anointed Trump’s ambassador to the Vatican. Being out of public office for 20 years has not deterred Gingrich, a self-styled expert in everything from health care to defense, from opining on what leaders should do. Now finding himself at the epicenter of the worst public health crisis for several generations, he has a message for Americans: Take this seriously. It’s going to change your world.
“I was in South Korea when it broke earlier this year and now I’m living through the crisis in Italy,” he told POLITICO Magazine by phone. “This is a real threat.”
It hasn’t completely changed Gingrich’s world yet; he was speaking from a car taking him to the Fox News studio in Rome, despite a nationwide ban on nonessential travel.
Since moving to Rome, Gingrich is said to have taken to his official role as diplomatic husband with enthusiasm. He almost never misses an official event at Villa Richardson, the ambassadorial residence, where his political insights are in demand with conservative Catholics, according to regular attendees. But he carefully steers clear of Vatican-related matters, said one of them. “He takes a back seat and allows her to shine.”
But on matters outside the Vatican realm, Gingrich, is as voluble as ever. And despite being at an age (76) at which some politicians might consider hanging up their boots, he maintains an exhausting multimedia schedule, appearing regularly on Fox News, on Sean Hannity’s radio show and in numerous documentaries made for Gingrich360, his “full-service American consulting service and production group.”
The group says its mission is to “promote American values” while “Newt helps to solve our nation’s greatest challenges in health care, education, national security.” Gingrich is “recognized internationally as an expert on world history, military issues, and international affairs.”
In reality, Gingrich has a mixed scorecard as a visionary. As early as the 1990s he had reportedly anticipated all children would have laptops in the future. But he was also responsible for the bizarre proposal, middebate during his 2012 run for the Republican presidential nomination, to give the U.S. a permanent moon base by 2020, widely credited with scuppering his chances against the more earthbound Mitt Romney.
Fox appearances aside, cooped up in Rome, Gingrich has minted proposals on every aspect of the crisis, from the best software for online learning to tax breaks for industrial production that cuts China out of the supply chain. He has interviewed disease experts on his weekly podcast, Newt’s World, and wondered on Twitter if the virus could provoke regime change in Iran. In an op-ed in Newsweek, he urged America to “act now- and act big.”
His central message is that Americans should learn from Italy and plan for a worst-case pandemic. “We must be very, very careful with something new,” he said. The closure of schools, churches and restaurants in Italy “is not an overreaction.” “You have to isolate the virus, minimize contact between people. If you can do it thoroughly enough, the virus begins to die out.”
He has also advocated extraordinary economic measures: massive investment in the U.S., and help too for Europe. “We don’t just want to drop money in helicopters but invest in infrastructure and manufacturing,” he said. “Italy gets 14 percent of its GDP from tourism, and the Colosseum has gone from 20,000 visitors a day to zero. So, we will have to make sure that Europe rebounds or they will drag us down.”
In his time in Rome, by many accounts, Gingrich has played gracious second fiddle to his wife. So why the need to be in the limelight now? One potential explanation is that Gingrich sees his role as important in helping persuade Republican skeptics to take the virus more seriously. That they haven’t taken it seriously so far is the fault of the distrust created by “the totally dishonest left-wing news media,” he tweeted.
As House speaker, he was better known as a fighter than a policy visionary, and Gingrich’s crisis response still betrays some of that impulse. The virus has given him a chance to single out allies, such as Mike Pence, for praise while attacking foes like China, who he blames for initially concealing the outbreak, and Joe Biden, for trying to keep the borders open. One proposal was a tax credit for bringing home industrial production of items that have been outsourced to China over the years.
He has been careful to defend Trump’s reaction to the outbreak, praising his mobilization of the private sector and ban on flights from Europe—and, of course, leaving the door open for a position in Trump’s A-Team in his second term.
There is likely an element of pragmatism in his self-publicization too. Gingrich’s earnings as a talking head and on the after-dinner speech circuit depend on remaining relevant and keeping his profile high—not easy while under lockdown overseas. Gingrich delivers around 30 speeches a year, according to his website; online, readers of his blog are even funneled toward paying membership of his club, Newt’s Inner Circle, which costs $85 a year. Members receive “flash briefs, VIP fast passes to live events, as well as 15 percent discount at the Gingrich360 online store,” where you can buy autographed copies of his DVDs and historical novels.
This is not the first crisis to get the Gingrich treatment: After the 2016 terror attack in Nice, France, he called for Muslims in the U.S. to be tested to see if they believe in Shariah law, and if so, deported.
Not all of his ideas seem opportunistic: He has said authorities should protect the vulnerable “tens of thousands of homeless people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.” His pitch for massive state investment in an international growth package also runs counter to the hard-borders turn in Republican politics.
Is he doubling down on internationalism? Perhaps not quite: Gingrich later backtracked in our phone interview, saying help for Europe should be limited to “aggressively” encouraging people to travel again. “A strong enough U.S. economy will pull Europe forward,” he said.
Gingrich remains as mercurial—or contradictory—as ever: Three weeks ago he dismissed COVID-19 as less deadly than the flu and slammed Democrat-held cities for over-reacting. Since then, he has switched to advocating for strong state intervention with the zeal of a convert, heartily approving of Italy’s stringent restrictions and calling on his Twitter followers on Sunday to upgrade to “electronic friendship.” The next day he was on Fox News, calling for people in the U.S. “not to go to bar or restaurant, and recognize we are living through something comparable to a war.”
Where will Gingrich’s 360-degree vision take him next? Only Newt knows.
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Trapped in Italy, Newt Gingrich Fires Off Some Ideas for America - POLITICO
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