David Gergen: For the first time, US president is 'no longer regarded as world leader'

Veteran political insider David Gergen appears to have offered some conflicting views on Friday about President Trump's performance at the G20 summit in Germany.

The former White House adviser, who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, initially appeared on a CNN panel calling Trump "presidential."

Gergen focused on the apparent successes stemming from Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin including confronting the issue of election hacking, discussing future cyberattacks, and possibly working together on Syria.

He then said, "This was presidential. This was big league stuff."

But hours later, the Harvard professor reappeared on CNN, saying that "this is the first time I've seen a president come to a G20 meeting in which he's no longer regarded as the leader, no longer regarded as the world leader."

Gergen followed up the comment by saying, "Europe is going its own separate way. Japan just signed this big trade agreement with Europe. That is troubling."

The United States was also an exception on climate change at the G20 summit as The Guardian noted, "19 of the 20 leaders were able to agree on all points made in the joint declaration (known as the communique) with the exception of Donald Trump who could not agree on climate change."

Gergen did, however, speak positively again about the extended session between Trump and Putin, saying that "it does mean they went deeper, they were more serious, they engaged more."

Gergen later added that Trump "didn't crumple in front of Putin, and Putin didn't bully him into a corner...When the president...does something better than expected, I think we should say so."

See photos of the president at G-20: