Newt Gingrich calls on Trump to 'improve his game'

Former House speaker discusses the 2016 presidential race

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," April 5, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: All right, we're getting word now from The Washington Post that Donald Trump apparently is getting ready for a series of policy speeches in more formal I guess you could call them presidential venues than the sort of raucous affairs that have become a lot of his events.

That's no slight to Mr. Trump, of course. His events do command big audiences. But he's going to try to tone it down and then maybe with more policy-directed speeches try to fill out a gap here that he's often criticized for, for not providing much substance.

Newt Gingrich on that.

Newt, what do you think of that?

NEWT GINGRICH, R-FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, I think it's the right thing to do.

He -- I wish he had done it about a month ago. And the one speech he has given that was substantive was to AIPAC. It was a very well-received speech, delivered with a teleprompter.

CAVUTO: That's right.

GINGRICH: Lots of substance in it.

So, if he gave a series of six or eight or 10 speeches over the next month that outlined what a Trump administration would be like, I think it would make people feel more reassured. And I think that it would give them a better sense of what the serious underlying policy components are of what has up to now been an amazing populist campaign.

CAVUTO: But even his wife was acknowledging as much last night, Melania, that she has advised him to act more presidential. And he does. For a while, he can be very presidential. Then he starts tweeting or someone says something about him.

Then I think even she said he will respond 10-fold, paraphrasing there. Can he control that?

GINGRICH: I don't know.

CAVUTO: Is it damaging to him if he can't?

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: Of course it is.

And, look, we're all going to learn together. This is, after all, a guy who had never run for office, who announced on the 16th of June last year, has been the front-runner every single day since then, is clearly the front-runner, hasn't locked it up.

But he's the front-runner. So he's done a lot of things right, but he also is a little bit like a rookie quarterback in the Super Bowl. This is the big leagues. It gets much tougher the longer it goes on.

And he's going to have to improve his game if he's going to win in the end. We will see if he's capable of doing it. I think he's a very smart man, but I also think when you have been as successful as he has in business, in television, in books, it's a little hard to change at this stage, because all those other things worked for so long.

CAVUTO: You know, you pointed this out, too, Newt, but that he has survived controversial remarks and, to some, many repugnant remarks, and always comes out swinging and always come winning.

This seems to be a first time, after a very difficult week -- I think he would acknowledge that -- where it could show up in the polls and it could show up in Wisconsin voting tonight. If it does, does he have something to be worried about?

GINGRICH: Sure. Of course he does. It's never over until it's over. I watched last night with Melania and with Sean Hannity on that show, and I thought it was interesting to watch that Trump finally said he had done something wrong, and that, if he had to do it over again, he wouldn't do it.

And that was, of course, the tweet about Mrs. Cruz. I think that's the first time I have ever seen him admit that he just plain blew it. And that's good. That's healthy. You can't expect to go through all this stuff and not make mistakes.

Reagan made some mistakes. Eisenhower made some mistakes. The question is, do you learn from it, do you mature, do you come back even more prepared? And I think the jury is out, but I think we're going to find out the next few weeks.

He's still going to be the front-runner, no matter what happens tonight, and New York is very formidable for Cruz. Ted Cruz has run a great campaign, a very, very smart campaign, and I think clearly those are the two contenders, that -- the only two people, I believe, who could become the nominee.

CAVUTO: You will be interested knowing we're speaking to a lot of big donors tonight on FOX Business, which I know you prefer watching our coverage anyway, because, if you don't have it, you should demand it, Newt.

And one of the thing we're getting into is, the money guys are getting restless now, and they might be seeking out alternatives. Does that surprise you?

GINGRICH: There are no alternatives. This is a fantasy.

There are two people who will have gotten millions and millions of votes. Those two people have paid their dues. They went to the debates. They organized their campaigns. Their names are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

And the establishment needs to just give up all this fantasy business. It ain't going to happen. Those two candidates will enter the convention between them with over 80 percent of the votes.

Now, in America, you don't overturn the two guys that got 80 percent by inventing somebody who didn't run, didn't debate, didn't raise money, didn't organize.

CAVUTO: It's happened before. Speaker, it's happened before.

GINGRICH: Oh, it has not happened in modern times. And you have to go back a long, long way to find something like that.

CAVUTO: Well, you're obviously forgetting the 100 Years War. That, I remember vividly.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right, Speaker, thank you very much. I know you will be glued to FOX Business, as will the rest of the nation.

GINGRICH: Good to be with you. Absolutely.

CAVUTO: Thank you very much, sir.

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