Ex-MSNBC host Chris Matthews praised President Donald Trump during a conversation with Charlie Rose on Saturday, suggesting the president had a strong cultural connection to the country."Hes very good at knowing your condition, your worries, your insecurities. I mean, hed be a great bully in a grade school, a Catholic high school or grade school. I mean, hed be the scariest bully because hed know everybodys weakness. But hes really good at the moment. I mean, hes out there watching television and keeping up, and, Is this the right thing to do, what were doing right now?" Mattews told Rose. "Biden couldnt do that in a million years, not a million years. Mondale couldnt do that. They dont have the connection to the electricity of whats going on in the country culturally. And he knows what works."Matthews, the former host of "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC, spoke to Rose during his show, "A Charlie Rose Global Conversation."Rose began the discussion by asking Matthews how he would rate the president as a politician.TRUMP CRITIC ADMITS THE PRESIDENT PUT TOGETHER A BETTER WORKING-CLASS COALITION THAN ANY DEMOCRAT"We have never had a president so instantly spontaneous that he knows this minute, if he had said at four oclock this afternoon, he would say, You know, thats not really true anymore. He will know the mood of the country. I once had a talk with him about the Zoolander movie, Ben Stiller movie, and he said, Zoolander 1, good timing. Zoolander 2, didnt work. Hes instantaneous," Matthews said.The former MSNBC host said Trump knew how to put down Jeb Bush and several of his GOP opponents.Matthews also argued that Trump was a strong public figure."His strength is still greater than the Democratic strength," he told Rose. "He is a stronger public figure than the Democratic people. I mean, Obama still has tremendous charisma, but Trump has strength. And I think thats what all voters look for. They want a president who is a strong figure. And hes got it. Its just there. And half the country buys it."MSNBC HOST TELLS COLBERT THAT TRUMP HAS STARTED TO 'F--- AROUND WITH THE MILITARY'He also said that he didn't believe polls that showed Trump's popularity slipping."To be honest with you, the country is moving towards Trump!" Matthews told Rose. "These polls, they come out and show him not doing well, I dont buy that."Matthews offered some political praise for Trump earlier this year over his efforts against elite institutions."I have to say that the administration sometimes sets its targets in the right direction. The elite universities in this country are not exactly covered in roses right now in the way that they handled these demonstrations," Matthews said during MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in April.CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREMatthews lamented that protests over the Israel-Hamas war over the last year prevented students from going to class, and said every student - Jewish or not - had a right to attend the classes they're paying for at universities like Harvard."And the fact that they had to be told to do this, they had to be told to let students go to school, which is what this is about, that they had to be told to do, that they had a problem in their own heads. So I think the elite universities are taking a beating right now. Its probably a smart move," he said at the time.