On foreign trip, media figures praise Trump as “presidential” for not acting like a child

Written by Brennan Suen

Published

Media figures praised President Donald Trump as “presidential” for not yet causing an international controversy on this week’s five-country trip, his first venture out of the country since the inauguration. They said the trip was “uncharacteristically normal” and praised Trump for not sounding “like the guy at the end of the bar popping off.”

Trump takes first international trip

CNN: “President Donald Trump is abroad for the first time as commander in chief.” CNN reported that President Donald Trump is taking his first international trip, “undertaking an ambitious agenda of diplomacy in a nine-day, five-country trip.” Trump is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Vatican City, Brussels, and Sicily. [CNN.com, 5/19/17]

Media figures heap on praise

CBS’ Bob Schieffer on CNN: Trump “actually sounded presidential. … He didn’t sound like the guy at the end of the bar popping off. He sounded like someone who had actually thought about what he was going to say before he said it.”

[CNN, Reliable Sources, 5/21/17]

Fox’s Abby Huntsman: “Talk about coming at the right time to change the narrative … and really to appear as presidential as I think we have seen him so far in this role.”

[Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/22/17]

CNN’s David Drucker: “Here is a president acting presidentially. Now look, yes, it’s a low bar. Yes, he’s set low expectations, but it’s all about the visuals.”

[CNN, New Day, 5/22/17]

Council on Foreign Relations’ Richard Haass on MSNBC: “It was an in some ways surprisingly or uncharacteristically normal trip [where] what didn’t happen is at least as important as what happened.”

[MSNBC, Morning Joe, 5/22/17]

RealClearPolitics’ A.B. Stoddard on CNN: Trump is doing “a great job.” His trip was “very ambitious: high risk, high reward.”

[CNN, New Day, 5/22/17]