Just Kidding, Guys! Gingrich ‘Goofed’ When He Said ‘Drain The Swamp’ Is Dead

Minutes after President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that his administration “will always be trying to DTS”—“drain the swamp”—ally Newt Gingrich tweeted a short video asking forgiveness for ever implying otherwise.

“I want to report that I made a big boo boo,” a despondent Gingrich says to camera in the video. “I spoke this morning with President-elect Donald Trump, and he reminded me: He likes draining the swamp. I mischaracterized it the other day.”

I goofed. Draining the swamp is in, @realDonaldTrump is going to do it, and the alligators should be worried. #DTS https://t.co/nCHs61gpve pic.twitter.com/OCO7eaSKvk

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) December 22, 2016

Gingrich seemed to be responding to the President-elect’s tweet that “someone” had implied he would no longer be using the phase he coined on the campaign trail:

Someone incorrectly stated that the phrase “DRAIN THE SWAMP” was no longer being used by me. Actually, we will always be trying to DTS.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016

That “someone” appeared to reference Gingrich himself, who said in an interview on NPR’s “Morning Editing” Wednesday that he was told Trump “disclaims” the catchphrase.

“He now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore,” Gingrich said.

The former House speaker wasn’t the only Trump confidante to report that the President-elect had soured on the phrase. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and the newly-minted leader of a political consulting outfit a block away from the White House, said as much Thursday morning.

“Look, I think if you had to put them in a chronological order, ‘drain the swamp’ is somewhere down at the bottom,” of Trump’s priorities, he told “Fox & Friends.”

Lewandowski has yet to issue an apology for that analysis.