Oh, wow. This is rich.

Trump acolyte, Newt Gingrich is commenting on a recent epiphany Donald Trump has apparently had.

Donald Trump is a man who seems to have just now realized that he’s running for president, Newt Gingrich declared Friday night.

“[Trump] is a guy who’s beginning to realize that seeking to lead the most complicated country in the world, seeking to lead 325 million people, is a real burden,” the former House speaker, who is major fan of the GOP nominee, said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, whose fealty to Trump is without question.

So let’s just put this in perspective, because I don’t want anyone to be unclear about what’s being said here.

At the beginning of this race, we had men like Governor Rick Perry, who spent 14 years running the 12^th largest economy in the world and who did so with remarkable success.

We had Senator Ted Cruz – still a little green, in my opinion, but without question, one of the sharpest minds in the Senate.

We had Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and a host of others who have had varying degrees of success in their chosen fields, but who all had a clear understanding of the challenges our nation is faced with, and who all had valid platforms to build on.

We had all these men, and one really sharp businesswoman to choose from, all of whom had experience and were offering themselves and their service to their nation with the utmost sincerity of purpose.

What we ended up with was some unserious clown who knew nothing about policy, very little, beyond some vague generalities, about the problems our nation is faced with, and only decided to run several months before announcing, after a conversation with the husband of the woman who is his opposition.

His preparation for the job consisted of getting the press to show up on time.

Gingrich, who endorsed this unserious, unprepared neophyte early on, says that this week has been Trump’s “best week” yet, and that the words of regret for his past behavior during the campaign are a game changer.

With these words, Gingrich argued, Trump revealed that he now understands the full weight and seriousness of the office for which he is running.

“I think what you’ve seen this week is, literally, I don’t know if he’ll like the term or not, you’ve seen a more mature, and in a way a more humble Donald Trump,” he said.

It’s a bit late in the game to suddenly be maturing, when the needs of the nation are so many. None of this should be making anyone listening to Gingrich’s words feel better about our current situation.

We had candidates who had spent years in preparation, and who actually took the job seriously, who were passed over for an unserious clown, who just wanted to have his ego stroked by adoring crowds.

“It was almost like a contest between his stubbornness and his IQ,” he said. “His IQ really knew that he had to move to a new level, that he had to become a real presidential alternative.”

On second thought… too easy. I’ll let that one go.

Hillary Clinton’s camp isn’t buying this newer, gentler Trump. Nobody else should, either.

His addition of a nasty character like Steve Bannon as CEO of his campaign should be a signal that any hope for maturity is shot. Were Bannon not the raving temple guard of Trump propaganda Trump would have never brought him onboard.

Trump still wants nothing but Yes men around him. He cares more about his ego than anything else. That’s not maturity, and that’s not somebody taking the needs of this nation seriously.

Gingrich and others acting as Trump surrogates and toadies are lying to the people, and when this is over, the public should hold them all accountable.