--- title: Donald Trump to Drop ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says description: Donald Trump now wants to distance himself from his “drain the swamp” rallying cry on the campaign trail, according to Newt Gingrich. canonical: https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-21T17:15:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:32:38.050Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Is Dropping ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says og:description: "He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore" og:url: https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt315d5910a562871f/6988b3b4f887dc13b5e988e1/newt-donald-trump-drain-swamp.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Hopeful Newt Gingrich Meets With Donald Trump In New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Is Dropping ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says twitter:description: "He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt315d5910a562871f/6988b3b4f887dc13b5e988e1/newt-donald-trump-drain-swamp.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Is Dropping ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 21, 2016 5:15 PM UTC  Newt Gingrich (R) speaks to the media as Donald Trump listens at Trump Tower following a meeting between the two on Dec. 5, 2011 in New York City. Newt Gingrich (R) speaks to the media as Donald Trump listens at Trump Tower following a meeting between the two on Dec. 5, 2011 in New York City. Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 21, 2016 5:15 PM UTC [President-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/) now wants to distance himself from the “[drain the swamp](http://time.com/4602918/donald-trump-fec-federal-election-commission/)” rallying cry that he repeated frequently on the campaign trail, according to Newt Gingrich. The former House Speaker, who is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, told [NPR](http://www.npr.org/2016/12/21/506378085/gingrich-says-trump-must-address-business-conflicts-soon-urges-monitors) on Wednesday that Trump is dropping the refrain that he widely used during the election cycle to describe apparent corruption in Washington, D.C. “I’m told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore,” Gingrich said. “He’s in a different role now, and maybe he feels that as president, as the next president of the United States, that he should be marginally more dignified than talking about alligators in swamps.” Trump admitted at a campaign rally in October that it took some time before the phrase “drain the swamp” grew on him. “We are going to drain the swamp. You know, that phrase started about a week ago, and I thought it was terrible. I didn’t like it at all,” Trump said at the time, according to [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/newt-gingrich-trump-drain-the-swamp/index.html). “I said I don’t know. I just don’t like it. And now it’s become one of the hottest phrases anywhere in the world and I’m saying I like it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Is Dropping ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says","datePublished":"2016-12-21T17:15:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:32:38.050Z","description":"\"He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore\"","url":"https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt315d5910a562871f/6988b3b4f887dc13b5e988e1/newt-donald-trump-drain-swamp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt315d5910a562871f/6988b3b4f887dc13b5e988e1/newt-donald-trump-drain-swamp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Hopeful Newt Gingrich Meets With Donald Trump In New York","caption":"Newt Gingrich (R) speaks to the media as Donald Trump listens at Trump Tower following a meeting between the two on Dec. 5, 2011 in New York City.","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4609257/donald-trump-drain-swamp-newt-gingrich/","name":"Donald Trump Is Dropping ‘Drain the Swamp,’ Newt Gingrich Says"}}]}] ```