Campaign

Gingrich says he hopes Trump will plan speeches in large cities

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is seen in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Wednesday he hopes former President Trump plans to make speeches in larger cities to attract members of President Biden’s base.

Gingrich was responding to Fox News host Sean Hannity, who said the sitting president is losing members of his base “in massive numbers.” Hannity added that he sees it as an “opportunity” for Trump to reach out.

Asked how the former president could appeal to them, Gingrich explained that Trump should travel to large cities to make his case.

“Well, this may surprise you, I think that the country wants ideas more than anger. I think that the country wants to see a presidential candidate in the big cities,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity.”

“I hope that Trump will plan for seven or eight or nine speeches from Philadelphia to Baltimore, to New York, to Boston, to Chicago, to San Francisco,” the former lawmaker added.

Many of the bigger cities in the U.S. are led by Democrats and tend to lean Democratic in presidential elections. Gingrich suggested Trump could pick up some votes in some of them, noting that San Francisco voters were in favor of requiring drug testing for those who were getting welfare, adding “That’s a big shift.”

“And I think there’s a country out there that would love to have a presidential candidate who is unifying, visionary, when he ought to ally himself for example, with Elon Musk, and lay out a space program for the next decade that would inspire every young American to believe they had a great dynamic future,” he said.

He also signaled that Trump could attract young voters, Black voters, Latino Americans and Asian Americans if he is “positive and aggressive” and goes “everywhere.”

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ national polling average, Trump is leading Biden by 1 percentage point with 44.5 percent of support.