Dennis Quaid, star of the upcoming biopic “Reagan,” paid tribute to former President Donald Trump after the president visited minority communities in New York City.
Quaid is Jesse Watters Primetime Trump’s groundbreaking rally in the South Bronx on Thursday drew thousands of people to support the 2024 presidential candidate.
“I really admire that Trump is going out into the community,” Quaid told Watters. “You all relate to that, really. If anything, these events that have worked against Trump have just made him more human.”
Quaid added: “Donald Trump is saying he’s going to clean up and start over, so to speak, and do a spring clean. That doesn’t mean he’s going to become a dictator. It just means he’s starting to do what the American people want us to do.”
In the summer of 1980, Ronald Reagan visited the South Bronx to criticize President Jimmy Carter’s lack of urban renewal efforts and liken the area to post-World War II London. The visit came before Reagan’s narrow victory in New York by nearly three percentage points in the 1980 general election.
Mr. Reagan won New York by 8 points in 1984 and went on to win 49 states in a landslide victory. Since then, no Republican president has won this traditionally Democratic stronghold in a general election.
The veteran Hollywood actor recalled the moment, describing President Reagan’s visit to the South Bronx as “very meaningful” because he “lived” that era.
“It took guts to go that far,” Quaid said. “I think it might have ended up embarrassing me.”
Quaid said Reagan was the first president he voted for, and described him as “a man of the people” and “a great communicator.”
Dennis Quaid will play the 40th President of the United States in the biopic “Reagan,” scheduled for release in 2024.
“It’s a really great movie and a reminder of what America was and what it can become,” Quaid said. “It’s kind of a portrait of President Reagan. He was a great man. I’m very proud of this movie.”
When asked by Watters if he saw similarities between 1980 and now, Quaid said he still believes in the slogan, “Are we better off than we were four years ago?”
“Reagan” is scheduled to hit theaters on August 30th.
