Once upon a time, about two weeks ago, Newt Gingrich put on a brave face as reports rolled in, right in the middle of his Facebook Live event explaining Donald Trump’s vice-presidential selection process, that another man had got the job he’d openly coveted. But perhaps Trump turned out to be the best thing Gingrich never had. After days of gaffes and missteps, and with the Trump campaign imploding, the former House Speaker turned on the man whose candidacy he had long supported, publicly denouncing Trump as unelectable.

“The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable,” Gingrich told The Washington Post on Wednesday, explaining the Republican nominee recently had become just as bad lately as Hillary Clinton. “Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.”

In the past week alone, Trump has continually criticized the Gold Star parents of a dead Muslim-American soldier, invited the Russian government to hack Clinton’s e-mails, refused to endorse two of the G.O.P.’s leading Republican lawmakers, insinuated that he would challenge the general election outcome if Clinton beat him, and displayed some extremely poor knowledge about the Russian conflict in Crimea . . . not to mention reports of his perturbing interest in America’s nuclear arsenal.

Such acts, said Gingrich, could portend irreversible harm to Trump’s candidacy if he does not act quickly. “Anybody who is horrified by Hillary should hope that Trump will take a deep breath and learn some new skills,” he implored. “He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She can’t be bad enough to elect him if he’s determined to make this many mistakes.”

The former House Speaker also offered a somewhat Rumsfeldian twist on the insanity defense, arguing that Trump “can’t learn what he doesn’t know because he doesn’t know he doesn’t know it”—a convoluted statement that nonetheless rings true given the billionaire’s inexplicable actions over the past several days. Recent news stories suggest that Republican strategists and allies, including Republican National Committee chief Reince Priebus, are in a panic, and even Trump’s staff—including famed despot adviser Paul Manafort—are reportedly despaired at keeping Trump on message. His own vice-presidential candidate, Mike Pence, broke ranks with Trump on Wednesday, endorsing Paul Ryan, whom Trump had previously threatened to dethrone, in an unconvincing display of party unity.

Gingrich still allowed himself a few words of advice for his fellow Republican, whether or not Trump is constitutionally capable of listening: “You cannot allow yourself to be drawn into fights that aren’t relevant to winning the presidency.” It seems a lesson too late for Trump to learn.