"I thought it was a major step forward,” Bob Corker said about Donald Trump's foreign policy speech. | Getty Senate Foreign Relations chair gushes over Trump speech

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker praised Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech on Wednesday night, calling it a “great step in the right direction.”

Speaking to MSNBC host Chris Matthews on his program “Hardball,” the Tennessee Republican said that Trump’s remarks, delivered at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel earlier in the day, were “full of substance” and he was “very pleased” with what he heard.


“If you look at the broadness, the vision, I thought it was a major step forward,” Corker said.

Corker also released a written statement urging the billionaire front-runner to be more specific in outlining his new “coherent” vision for America if elected president.

“I look forward to hearing more details, but in a year where angry rhetoric has defined the presidential race on both sides of the aisle, it is my hope that candidates in both parties will begin focusing not only on the problems we face but on solutions,” Corker wrote shortly after Trump spoke.

Other foreign policy hands in both parties were more critical, arguing that Trump’s comments about trade with China and combating the Islamic State in the Middle East lacked specific policy prescriptions and showed dangerous incoherence.