--- title: Mike Pence Compares Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt description: Vice President Mike Pence compared Donald Trump's "can-do spirit" to Teddy Roosevelt during a recent visit to the Panama Canal. canonical: https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-18T13:51:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:03:47.156Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mike Pence Compares Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt og:description: Pence says the two both had a "can-do spirit" og:url: https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bb8cefadb9d9a70/6988d86bab6d77802d6af43d/gettyimages-821756702.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Trump to make a statement on health care at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mike Pence Compares Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt twitter:description: Pence says the two both had a "can-do spirit" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bb8cefadb9d9a70/6988d86bab6d77802d6af43d/gettyimages-821756702.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mike Pence Says Donald Trump Has 'Can-Do Spirit' Like Teddy Roosevelt  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 18, 2017 1:51 PM UTC  U.S. Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Trump to make a statement on health care at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Trump to make a statement on health care at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.Pool—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 18, 2017 1:51 PM UTC Vice President Mike Pence compared his boss to Teddy Roosevelt during a visit to the Panama Canal Thursday, saying the two shared a “can-do spirit” at a time when Trump has been [widely criticized](http://time.com/4906163/trump-confederate-statues/?xid=homepage) for his response to the violent white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville. “In President Donald Trump, I think the United States once again has a president whose vision, energy and can-do spirit is reminiscent of President Teddy Roosevelt,” Pence said, [the Chicago _Tribune_ reports](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-pence-trump-teddy-roosevelt-20170817-story.html). “Then, as now, we have a builder of boundless optimism, who seeks to usher in a new era of shared prosperity all across this new world.” While Pence invoked some of the admirable presidential qualities Roosevelt was known for, Roosevelt also [called](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/theodore-roosevelt-reviews-race-relations-feb-13-1905-234938) whites “the forward race” and minorities “the backward race.” The latter is a fraught comparison as Trump is under fire for saying there was “[blame on both sides](http://time.com/4902159/donald-trump-there-is-blame-on-both-sides-for-violent-clashes-in-charlottesville/?iid=sr-link1)” for the violence in Charlottesville and taking two days to explicitly condemn white supremacists. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/"},"headline":"Mike Pence Says Donald Trump Has 'Can-Do Spirit' Like Teddy Roosevelt","datePublished":"2017-08-18T13:51:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:03:47.156Z","description":"Vice President Mike Pence compared Donald Trump's \"can-do spirit\" to Teddy Roosevelt during a recent visit to the Panama Canal.","url":"https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/","keywords":["Mike Pence","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bb8cefadb9d9a70/6988d86bab6d77802d6af43d/gettyimages-821756702.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bb8cefadb9d9a70/6988d86bab6d77802d6af43d/gettyimages-821756702.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Trump to make a statement on health care at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.","caption":"U.S. Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Trump to make a statement on health care at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mike-pence/","name":"Mike Pence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4906280/mike-pence-teddy-roosevelt-trump/","name":"Mike Pence Says Donald Trump Has 'Can-Do Spirit' Like Teddy Roosevelt"}}]}] ```