Although not really an admirer or supporter of Donald Trump, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich conceded that the brash billionaire was right in his assessment of the terrorist threats facing the West.
Speaking on Fox Business Network on Wednesday, Gingrich said Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Brussels "validated" Trump's presidential run and his ability to handle foreign policy.
Gingrich even compared Trump to former President Ronald Reagan in his ability "to read the obvious," The Hill and the Washington Times reported.
"Tragically, I think that the attacks in many ways validated Donald Trump's entire candidacy," the former Speaker said.
"There are a lot of things with Trump that I can find at fault with, but one of his strengths is to read the obvious. He's a little bit like Reagan in that sense," he added.
Reagan, a former Hollywood actor, was the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989. According to the White House website, Reagan's term "saw a restoration of prosperity at home, with the goal of achieving 'peace through strength' abroad."
Reagan is best remembered for the achievements of his innovative programme known as the Reagan Revolution, which moved to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon government.
"[Trump] knew that the people who perpetrated the Paris atrocities, many of them had come from Brussels," Gingrich said. "He has business friends who go to and from the European Union in Brussels, and his business friends are saying to him, 'It's out of control.' So he reports the obvious, everybody else thinks he's stupid because he's the only guy saying it, and now here we are several months later."
"The fact is, Donald Trump was right," he said.
In January, Trump drew flak when he said "there is something bad going on" in Brussels.
"There is something going on and it's not good, where they want Shariah law, where they want this, where they want things that — you know, there has to be some assimilation. There is no assimilation. There is something bad going on," Trump said at the time.
After Tuesday's attacks in the Belgian capital, Trump noted that he was in Brussels 20 years ago when the city was "so beautiful." Now, he said, "it's like living in a hellhole."
The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for killing at least 34 people and injuring hundreds of others in a string of coordinated blasts on Tuesday at Brussels' Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station.
