President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to calm concerned Latin American leaders about the Trump administration, urging people to "not make immediate judgments" until the president-elect puts his team together.
"Don't just assume the worst. Wait until the new administration is in place, is putting its policies forward, and then you can make your own judgments," Obama told a group of 1,000 young leaders from around the Americas in Peru on Saturday, according to USA Today.
"There are going to be tensions that arise, probably more about trade more than anything else," he added but said he's not convinced Donald Trump would tear up trade deals, as the president-elect promised on the campaign trail.
"Once they look at how it's working, I think they’ll conclude that it’s working both for the United States and its trading partners," said Obama.
Obama's comments Saturday, during his final stop on the last foreign trip of his presidency, followed a pattern of trying to give Trump space to adopt what Obama hopes are more conventional policies, noted USA Today.
In Europe this week, Obama reassured allies Trump would maintain the U.S. commitment to NATO.
"How you campaign is not always the same as how you govern," Obama said. "When you’re campaigning, you're trying to stir up passions. When you govern, you have reality in front of you, and you have to figure out how to make this work."
In a meeting with reporters earlier this week, Obama admitted he has concerns about the presidency of Trump, but also urged Americans to give the President-elect a chance.
"I don't think he is ideological, he is pragmatic in that way and that can serve him well as long as he has got good people around him and he has a good sense of direction," Obama said at the news conference.