'Fox News Sunday' host Chris Wallace told network anchor Shep Smith on Friday that it looks to him like Donald Trump is effectively the president already. Wallace said that Trump has done so much more than president-elects generally do before their term begins that he is giving off the impression that Barack Obama has retired early.



"He’s almost more the president than the president is," Wallace said.



"He’s not waiting until he actually takes the oath of office on January 20th," he concluded. "He’s kind of the Commander-in-Chief already."



Trump visited victims of last week's terrorist attack at Ohio State University yesterday and attended a campaign rally for a Louisiana Senate runoff candidate today.



Partial transcript:





CHRIS WALLACE: Well, I heard you on the other side of the break talking about the fact that I've been covering presidential transitions since Ronald Reagan in 1980. I have. And this is just as different -- in fact we'll call the program "The Trump Way"-- because he is doing things differently than any president-elect I can remember. In a sense, he is almost more the president than the president is.



We pay more attention when he speaks about China or what he is going to do about jobs or economic policy and saving jobs -- it has more traction than when President Obama says things. So he is not waiting until the takes the oath of office on January 20th. He is kind of the commander-in-chief already...



I think he got a lot of points when he intervened in the Carrier dispute. You can argue whether it was 800 jobs or 1100 jobs. Here was a president-elect taking direct action to save hundreds of jobs from going across border to Mexico, and more importantly: When he talks about creating a favorable business climate, rolling back regulations, lower taxes, that's one of the reasons that you see the stock market taking off. This isn't just a coincidence. This is because investors believe it's going to be a much more favorable environment for companies to do business, and that kind of an environment is one in which more people will be hired.



