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STORY: Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich met with real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump in New York on Monday.
A surge in support for Gingrich has made him the new front-runner in Iowa, which holds the first of next year's U.S. presidential nominating contests, according to a closely watched opinion poll published on Saturday.
Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has support from 25 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers, up from just 7 percent in late October, the poll conducted for The Des Moines Register newspaper found.
After the nearly hour-long meeting inside Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, Gingrich said he can appeal to all Americans.
"If I do become the nominee, we're going to compete in all 50 states. I don't believe in a red versus blue model. I believe that we are 100 percent Americans and I think that if the issue is food stamps versus paychecks, that every state in the country will be in play and I intend to run as the paycheck candidate," Gingrich told reporters. He added, "We have a real chance to win the nomination."
So far, Gingrich has not secured an endorsement from Donald Trump, and Trump is set to moderate a Republican debate in Des Moines on December 27.
Ron Paul has said he would not participate a "circus-like" Trump-moderated debate.
For many republican candidates, a meeting with Trump is standard, and Gingrich defended the obligatory one on one.
"Why wouldn't you want to come and hang out with him?" he said. He added, "If we are trying to figure out how to create jobs, I think one of the differences between my party and the other party is we actually go to people who know how to create jobs, to figure out how to create jobs."
Also during the news conference, Trump and Gingrich said they discussed creating apprenticeships for poor school children. Donald Trump used to host a reality television show called "The Apprentice".
