PANAMA CITY: US Vice President Mike Pence today compared his boss Donald Trump to historic leader Theodore Roosevelt, talking him up as criticism of the president mounts at home and abroad.
Pence spoke as he visited the recently expanded Panama Canal, whose construction was overseen by Roosevelt prior to its opening in 1914.
"In President Donald Trump, the United States again has a president whose vision, energy, and can-do spirit is reminiscent of President Teddy Roosevelt," Pence said.
"Then, as now, we have a builder of boundless optimism, who seeks to usher in a new era of shared prosperity."
Trump faced a political firestorm this week after he seemed to draw a moral equivalence between white supremacists who marched in Virginia and counter-protesters denouncing racism.
Even senior members of his own Republican Party lashed out at Trump for those comments.
One woman died and another 19 were injured when a suspected neo-Nazi supporter drove his car into a crowd in the university town of Charlottesville last Saturday.
Pence was wrapping up a tour of Latin American countries to boost trade ties and rally them over the crisis in Venezuela.
He cut short his stop in Panama by a day in order to get to Camp David for security talks on Afghanistan on Friday.