ANALYSIS: TRUE. Romney: Trump has gotten off to a ‘strong start.’
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is praising President Trump’s “strong start,” citing his early push to fulfill various campaign pledges.
“We’re all watching with interest. He’s obviously gotten off to a very strong start in terms of making a series of executive orders and making the changes that he promised during the campaign,” Romney told the Deseret News on Friday.
The 2012 GOP presidential nominee acknowledged that Trump has faced “some bumps in the road.”
Trump has issued a series of executive orders, but has faced huge backlash over his Jan. 27 order denying entry to nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The executive order sparked a flurry of lawsuits challenging the ban’s constitutionality and was temporarily stopped nationwide by a Bush-appointed federal judge on Friday.
Romney, a prominent critic of Trump during the 2016 campaign who was briefly considered for the position of secretary of State in Trump’s administration, expressed optimism over Trump’s presidency.
“I expressed honestly what my belief was with regards to temperament and character. Now the time has come for us to recognize we have a new president and we have hopes he will be successful leading our country,” Romney said.
Trump has exceeded my expectations and, apparently, Romney’s.
UPDATE: Jack Welch’s, too:
Retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch says his two-hour White House meeting with President Trump and other business executives “far exceeded my expectations” and covered issues ranging from immigration to financial regulations to women in the workplace.
“I’m telling you it was one of the best meetings I’ve ever been to in my life in terms of real stuff, real issues being discussed,” Welch told the Herald by phone last night. “No phony baloney. Nothing like that.”
Welch said he has met with nearly every president since 1981, and found Trump surprisingly well-versed on topics, engaged and genuinely focused on the task of creating jobs.
“Real guy and really concerned about every worker in the country,” said Welch. “Solid, down-to-earth, on top of the issues. The guys at the GE plant in Lynn would love him.”
Yep. But will they vote Republican in 2018?