President Donald Trump’s decision to hold a glittering party Friday before millions of Americans lost their federal food benefits amid the ongoing government shutdown has apparently baffled even longtime ally and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
“Somebody wasn’t thinking very clearly when they scheduled the Mar-a-Lago party,” he said in an NBC interview on Wednesday. “I’ll leave it at that.”
Democratic lawmakers and pundits have certainly been more vocal in condemning the Halloween bash at Trump’s resort in Florida. Gingrich has long supported Trump, and rarely offered him anything but purely constructive criticism — at least in public.
He appeared to maintain that diplomatic stance by noting “somebody,” without naming Trump, “wasn’t thinking” when they organized a roaring ’20s-themed party with ill-timed allusions to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby.”
The book quite famously explores the empty materialism and destructive carelessness of America’s wealthy, among other themes. Some believe Trump, whose bash was reportedly themed “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody,” was fully aware of its insensitive timing.
