President Donald Trump deserves "huge credit" for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even if his press conference following that meeting didn't go as well as he'd hoped, former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said Thursday.
"I used to work in the restaurant business," Scaramucci told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"When food drops, it take a while to wipe up."
However, he believes Trump's push is going well, and it's "nice to see him on other networks" to spread his message.
"You have to get him outside of the style box," said Scaramucci. "He is a television star, so let's get him out there. I think [Communications Director] Bill Shine is probably helping him do that."
Where Russia is concerned, Trump is trying to deescalate tension that has existed since 2014, with the situation in Crimea, said Scaramucci, and he thinks relations with Russia are going better.
"If he could just marry the policy initiatives and the execution of those policies with great communication, a lot of this stuff would be dialed back," he added. "It may hurt our ratings here but a lot of it will be dialed back. Smoother stuff is probably not as good for ratings."
Scaramucci added that with the press conference, Trump was likely letting Putin have an easier time.
"He is a gracious guy," he said about Trump. "He probably had a very tough meeting with [Putin] behind closed doors, where he was letting him have it a little bit. When he got up to the podium, [Trump] wanted to be gracious and so he is prone to do that."
Matters would have gone better if Trump had changed his wording, and told Putin that he had to go with his own security team, said Scaramucci.
"He made a gaffe," said Scaramucci. "He is traveling all over the world, has countless hours on aircraft, lots of intense meetings. You have to expect people to sometimes misstate things and I'm very happy he walked it back."
Trump has come under fire for the impression that he is more tough on allies like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May, but Scaramucci said Trump acts that way because they do have a great relationship.
"He is trying to tell them listen, the trading imbalance is bad for the world," said Scaramucci. "he is a negotiator, a real estate developer by training and he is tough on them but people are taking that as a wrong sign he is trying to break up the alliance. He is trying to strengthen the alliance."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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