Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said early Sunday that President Trump did not help himself by tweeting he was under investigation for firing former FBI Director James Comey.

“Trump has a compulsion to counterattack, and he’s very pugnacious," Gingrich, a Trump confidant, told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.” "I don’t think it serves him well. I don’t think it helped him.”

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"It’s who he’s been his whole life,” added Gingrich, who is promoting a new book on the president, “Understanding Trump.”

Gingrich was referring to a tweet posted by Trump last week in which the president said he was under investigation for firing Comey.

"I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt," the president tweeted, referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The former Speaker has been on the front lines this week defending the president in the wake of the FBI probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling.

“The president cannot obstruct justice,” he said last week.