Actor Dennis Quaid has praised President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, giving a rare Hollywood thumb’s up to the commander in chief’s efforts to meet the country’s emergency needs while also trying to hold the economy together.

The star of The Right Stuff, Innerspace, and The Day After Tomorrow also revealed that as a young man, Ronald Reagan was his favorite president, saying that he voted for Reagan in 1980.

Dennis Quaid offered his words of praise for President Trump in an conversation with The Daily Beast to promote his new podcast “The Dennissance.”

“I think Trump, no matter what anybody thinks of him, is doing a good job at trying to get these states — and all of the American people — what they need, and also trying to hold our economy together and be prepared for when this is all over,” he said.

Later in the interview, The Daily Beast tried to assign blame to President Trump, claiming he acted late. But Quaid pointed out that the president’s travel ban to China, which was enacted in January, was met with accusations of racism.

“Trump did do the travel ban to China, and then to Europe very quickly afterward, and he was castigated by a lot of members of Congress, who were just getting out of the impeachment, that it was racist what he was doing,” the actor said. “It’s a good thing we had that travel ban at the time. You know, the world has never experienced this, and I don’t think it’s a time to be political. I think it’s just time to get behind our government and have everybody do what they can.”

Quaid also said he approves of President Trump’s daily White House briefings on the coronavirus.

“I do appreciate that Trump is giving the briefings and on television every day giving out the information, and I think they have great people handling it.”

Quaid revealed he was supposed to star in a biopic of President Reagan, but the project has been put on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“He was my favorite president growing up. I voted for him in 1980, and I had a roommate and when I came home and told him I voted for Reagan he said, ‘You are kicked out of the hippies,'” the actor said. “I think he was, in my mind, definitely my favorite president in my lifetime. He was on a par with FDR and Lincoln too, I think. He really transformed our country.”

When The Daily Beast brought up the AIDS pandemic, Quaid admitted that he doesn’t think President Reagan handled the crisis well.

“You’re right about that. I think when it first came out, the whole country in general really considered that to be a ‘gay disease’ and handled it badly from the start,” he said.

Quaid’s new podcast launches today and will feature guests including Billy Ray Cyrus, Billy Bush, Lance Armstrong, and YouTube star Logan Paul.

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