"Donald Trump isn’t there to kind of trim around the edges and occupy the White House," John Boehner said. | Getty Boehner: Trump 'reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt'

Former House Speaker John Boehner unveiled a new presidential comparison for Donald Trump on Wednesday: Progressive Era reformer Teddy Roosevelt.

The former Ohio representative said the president-elect's confident persona hearkens back to that of the nation's 26th president.


"I think Donald Trump sees himself larger than life," Boehner said during an interview with Cincinnati's WCPO. "He kind of reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt, another guy who saw himself larger than life."

Boehner added that he feels Trump shares a reformer's mentality with Roosevelt.

"You look at what Teddy Roosevelt did, he came in to do big things," he said. "Donald Trump isn’t there to kind of trim around the edges and occupy the White House."

Boehner, who said he often golfs with Trump and thinks of him as "a good guy," said he was surprised by the mogul's ascendance in winning the Republican presidential nomination and ultimately the White House, but that it came out of Trump’s comprehension of American voters.

"He actually understood what the American people were thinking and what a majority of them were feeling," he said.

The former speaker stressed that Trump would need to garner bipartisan support to govern successfully, pointing to the need to "disagree without being disagreeable."

Asked whether he was envious of those serving and vying for public office in 2016, though, Boehner quickly shot the idea down.

"Oh my God, no," he said decisively. "Every day I'd watch [the campaign], it was like 'Oh, thank God I'm not in the middle of this.'"