Ex-Mets Pitcher Noah Syndergaard Praises Trump at White House Fitness Event

Former MLB pitcher Noah Syndergaard, best known for his time as a young star with the New York Mets, voiced support for President Donald Trump on Tuesday while criticizing the president's detractors.

Syndergaard said he has always been a Trump fan. He met the president for the first time at the White House during an event celebrating the Presidential Fitness Test.

"It's a dream come true, I'm riding this bliss in this moment," Syndergaard said of the meeting during an interview on Fox News Channel's "The Ingraham Angle."

"I really just don't quite understand the negativity or the pessimism he gets from the media and some of the population of this nation because he's just such a patriotic guy and he cares so much about everybody and the health of this nation and the health of this world,"

Syndergaard added that he felt "envious" of Trump's mental energy at age 79.

"I'm envious of the mental energy that this guy has, the sharpness he has, the comedic nature of everything he says. He's just a joy to be around," Syndergaard said.

Syndergaard joined other athletes as a guest of Trump at the White House event on Tuesday. The gathering marked Trump's plan to restore annual fitness tests in U.S. schools.

"Professional baseball pitcher, Noah Syndergaard, sometimes known as Thor, and he looks like Thor to me," Trump said to Syndergaard at the ceremony. "That is a man that I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with."

Syndergaard voiced strong support for the fitness testing program. He recalled taking the tests himself as a child.

"It just kind of hits home to me because I just remember doing all these tests throughout elementary school, intermediate school. And from a kid that, if you would have told me, I'd be sitting here talking to you, talking about the Presidential Fitness Council when I was, I don't know, 10 years old, I would have called you, you're crazy. And as a kid, I kind of, I grew up as a, what we'd call a late bloomer or a husky kid," Syndergaard said.

"It's important to be healthy and to be active and get out and compete and just expose yourself to as many sports and activities as you possibly can. I mean just the interaction I had with all the kids today, getting able to throw a couple of ground balls, do some pull ups, just get out in the sunshine and the White House lawn was just an amazing experience."