Advancing conservative policies is more important than any areas of disagreement with Donald Trump, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday.
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Hutchinson talked to reporters in Little Rock about his impressions of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee the day after he and other governors met Trump in New York.
The governor commented after at a news conference to announce a $400,000 grant to pay for Learning Blade, an education website that helps students explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related fields. Any student in Arkansas -- including students who are home-schooled or attend private school -- can use the program.
"He needs to hear everyone's voices," Hutchinson said of Trump. "There will be voices of disagreement. There will be voices like mine that will try to shape his policy in a better direction and fine-tune it."
Despite differences with Trump that the governor identified -- like seeking to test the religion of would-be immigrants and trying to disqualify a judge based on the judge's ethnic heritage -- Hutchinson said he's on the same team as the real estate mogul.
"Donald Trump's going to be Donald Trump," he said. "You know, I could make comparisons, but it's just his personality. To me, being presidential is listening, exploring new ideas, trying to do new thinking on old, historic problems, and he brings a certain mindset. He brings a certain style, a way of communication, that's totally different than mine."
The governor said the person who becomes the nation's leader defines what it means to be presidential.
"Anybody's presidential who's elected president. All of a sudden, our standard of what's presidential might change. Jimmy Carter, was he presidential -- you don't remember that -- when he carried his own clothes and tried to show he was a man of the people? That was his style," he said. "Donald Trump's going to have a different style. Ronald Reagan had a different style. Whoever's elected is going to be very, very presidential."
When asked if he planned to campaign for Trump, Hutchinson said he planned to take it a day at a time.
The governor also criticized President Barack Obama for his characterization of a man who killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub.
The president had derided Trump and other Republicans for using the term "radical Islam" in connection with the killing and other acts of terrorism.
"I was a little bit puzzled by the president. President Obama had talked about what difference does it make. Accuracy in language makes a difference," Hutchinson said when asked about the phrase. "Radical terrorism, radical Islam, is an appropriate terminology, and for him to poke fun at somebody because they want to use the accurate terminology strikes me as very odd."
Obama had argued that using the term "radical Islam" is unfair to the world's second-largest religion and helps terrorists recruit followers.
Hutchinson formerly served as undersecretary of the federal Homeland Security Department. He also headed the Drug Enforcement Administration and was a U.S. attorney and 3rd District congressman.
During the news conference, the governor touted Learning Blade as a tool to help schoolchildren explore career interests.
"I like small investments with big returns," he said. "I think that's what our computer coding initiative was."
The program runs on a website that's compatible with computers and tablets. Sheila Boyington, co-founder and president of Thinking Media, said it uses limited bandwidth so users with poor Internet speeds can still take advantage of the website.
"Our millennials really like career paths where they're helping people and they understand the society needs, and a lot of times we're not really showing our students how these great STEM careers -- in computer science and all the way down through career and technical education -- actually impact our society in a very prominent way," she said. "That was really kind of the basis of why we created Learning Blade -- to make sure."
Hutchinson said the tool will help expose young Arkansans to careers outside their communities.
"We're all defined by where we come from initially and we're limited in scope and vision by what our parents have given to us," the governor said. "But now [students] have a learning tool in school that can expose them to a new world."
A Section on 06/16/2016