Trump, Gingrich team up to make poor kids their 'apprenti'

In a win for those in favor of child labor, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has announced that business mogul Donald Trump will employ at least 10 poor children as "apprentices."

On Monday, Gingrich became fifth GOP candidate to meet with Trump ahead of a Newsmax debate hosted by the notorious birther.

"As a number of you know, I've been making the case that we need work very hard to help poor children in poor neighborhoods acquire the opportunity to work," Gingrich said at a press conference with Trump.

"I've asked [Trump] to take one of the poorer schools in New York and basically offer at least 10 apprenticeships to kids from that school to get them into the world of work, and to get them into an opportunity to earn money, and get them into the habit of showing up and realizing that effort gets rewarded, and that American is all about the work ethic."

For his part, Trump gave Gingrich all the credit for the idea.

"It was a great honor to have Newt up here," the business mogul remarked. "He did mention if I could do something for some of the kids in very, very poor schools throughout the city. I thought it was a great idea. We call it apprenticeship and we all know about 'The Apprentice.'"

"We're going to be picking ten young, wonderful children, and we're going to make them apprenti. ... It was Newt's idea, and I thought it was a great idea."

(The word 'apprenti' doesn't actually appear in the English dictionary. The plural form of apprentice is apprentices.)

The initiative is Gingrich's attempt to put a positive spin on his call to do away with some restrictions on child labor, which he has called "truly stupid."

"Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school," the former House Speaker told an audience at Harvard University’s Kennedy School in November.

Last week, Gingrich continued to call for the poorest kids to enter the work force.

"Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday," he said. "They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it is illegal."

Watch this video from MSNBC's News Live, broadcast Dec. 5, 2011.