Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been a first-hand witness to big, positive changes in American politics, and he comes away from those instances with the conclusion that President Donald Trump will be remembered by history as "one of the most disruptive figures ever to lead the United States."
"I have been involved in three really disruptive experiences in my career," said Gingrich in the Fox Nation series "Crisis 2020: Newt Gingrich on America's Future." "The first was in the late '70s, early '80s with Ronald Reagan, who just shook everything up."
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"There were periods where people thought that he was a cowboy from out west and didn't know what he was doing," recalled Gingrich, who was a young, conservative House Republican during the Reagan administration.
"[Reagan] took a foreign policy that was failing, and nine years later, the Soviet Union disappeared – that was disruption," continued Gingrich, who would go on to become the first Republican speaker of the House in four decades, the history of which is detailed in the Fox Nation series "Inside the Contract With America."
"We got the largest capital gains tax cut in history," he remembered, ticking off the accomplishments of the Republican-controlled House, working with the Bill Clinton administration.
"We passed welfare reform," he continued, "and the result was the largest decline of children in poverty in American history as parents went to work, earned more money, left poverty. Hugely successful story. We balanced the federal budget for four straight years."
Despite all of that, Gingrich still said he believes Trump's legacy will be more far-reaching.
"I would have to say, in all honesty, Trump is a much bigger disruptor than I was," Gingrich remarked. "I was speaker of the House. I disrupted as much as I could, but speakers have more limited power than presidents."
In fact, Gingrich predicted that historians will rank Trump among the most iconic presidents in American history.
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"I think the only two comparable disruptors were Andrew Jackson, who in personality was much more like Trump, and Abraham Lincoln, who by circumstance couldn't avoid it. He had to preside over and win a civil war."
"I think that if you look at the 200 judges he's gotten approved, if you look at the regulations he's repealed, if you look at the power of the ideas he's been pushing, he will go down in history as one of the most disruptive figures ever to lead the United States," Gingrich concluded.
Gingrich explored this topic and more at length in his new book "Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of Our Time." An exclusive, signed Fox Nation-edition is available for purchase here, for Fox Nation subscribers only.
To view the full episode of "Crisis 2020: Newt Gingrich on America's Future." visit Fox Nation and sign up today.
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