(The Hill) — CNN anchor Chris Wallace pressed “Reagan” star Dennis Quaid over his personal support for former President Donald Trump, saying the former president whom Quaid plays in an eponymous film would be a “appalled” by the 2024 Republican nominee.
Wallace asked Quaid, who plays the 40th U.S. president in the new movie, how he could support Trump, saying “a lot of people say that there would be no room for Ronald Reagan in Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”
The actor argued that the principles between the two Republican presidents are “very similar.”
“Well, I really don’t agree with that in a sense,” Quaid said during his appearance on the Max series “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” according to a clip obtained by Mediaite.
“Yes, Ronald Reagan was a man of his times,” he added. “And Trump is also, he’s a man of his times. But I do feel that the principles of Ronald Reagan and the principles of Donald J. Trump are very similar.”
Wallace noted that Trump’s approach to foreign policy, trade and intraparty politics are vastly different from Reagan’s and argued the late president would be “appalled by Trump’s behavior.”
“Well, let me pick up on that though because Reagan confronted the Russians,” Wallace said. “He talked, and you in the movie talk, about an evil empire. Trump doesn’t do that. 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.”
The actor responded by saying that although today’s GOP looks different than in Reagan’s time, the issues in the 2024 election are similar to those in 1980.
“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,” Quaid said. “Ronald Reagan was America first, I would contend. The circumstances around that, the issues around the election of 1980 are very similar today.”
“You had high inflation, gas prices, what they were, we had hostages in the Middle East,” he continued. “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.”
Quaid said in late May that he planned to vote for Trump in this year’s election, saying that the Republican contender is someone who “stands up to people.”
