Dennis Quaid Gets Grilled by Chris Wallace After Actor Compares Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan: 'He Would Have Been Appalled'
Dennis Quaid found himself in the hot seat after he compared Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan on this week's installment of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace.
The actor, 70, was promoting his new film in which he plays the former American president — who was in the White House from 1981 to 1989 — when the topic of the 2024 election came up.
"You have a new movie out called Reagan that focuses on his effort to win the Cold War," Wallace, 76, said. "You’ve come out for Donald Trump in this election. And I’m a little curious about that because a lot of people say that there would be no room for Ronald Reagan in Donald Trump’s Republican Party."
Quaid, 70, replied that he didn't agree with that statement before sharing his belief that the "principles of Ronald Reagan and the principles of Donald Trump are very similar."
But Wallace came ready for a debate, quickly rattling off a number of personal and policy differences between the two controversial politicians.
"Well, let me pick up on that though because Reagan confronted the Russians. He talked, and you in the movie talk, about an evil empire. Trump doesn’t do that," the CNN personality pointed out. "Reagan supported free trade. Trump imposes tariffs. And Reagan’s 11th commandment was thou shall not speak ill of another Republican. I gotta say, I think Reagan would have been appalled by Trump’s behavior."
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Quaid responded, "Well, I do think you see a Trump 2.0 here as far as the Republican party and him getting along that this time around."
"Ronald Reagan was America first I would contend. The circumstances around that, the issues around the election of 1980 are very similar today," he continued. "You had high inflation, gas prices, what they were, we had hostages in the Middle East. We were told that we were a nation in decline and felt that malaise that Jimmy Carter himself said that and very similar issues to what is going on today."
This isn't the first time Quaid has been outspoken about his political beliefs. As OK! previously reported, The Parent Trap star admitted he was going to vote for Trump, 78, in the 2024 election during a May episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored.
"It just seems to me, it just makes sense," he said at the time. "I was ready not to vote for Trump until — what I saw is more than politics. I see a weaponization of our justice system, and a challenge to our Constitution."
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Quaid also clarified that while he doesn't always appreciate what Trump says publicly, during his time as POTUS, the actor liked "everything he did" politically.