Dennis Quaid Thinks Trump Is 'Handling' the Coronavirus Pandemic 'in a Good Way': 'He's Involved'

Dennis Quaid has a positive outlook on how President Donald Trump is handling the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The actor, 65, spoke about the global virus with The Daily Beast while promoting his new podcast The Dennissance, available today.

When asked about his outlook on the pandemic, Quaid said, “Well, to tell you the truth, I think the president is handling it in a good way.”

“We see him on television every day, he’s involved, and the travel ban early on was a great idea,” Quaid said.

The actor continued, “I’m an independent — I’ve voted both ways throughout my life, swinging like a pendulum toward what the country needed at the time — and I think this might be an opportunity for the country to come together again.”

“World War II did that for that generation, and this might be our defining moment of a generation,” he added. “It’s going to be a different world, for sure, when all this is over, and hopefully we can all be a bit more unified.”

As the coronavirus has spread across the world, reaching one million cases worldwide earlier this month, the U.S. has raced (and sometimes struggled) to contain it.

The president himself adopted a more serious tone about the pandemic in recent weeks after first downplaying the virus compared to the seasonal flu.

The U.S. also had multiple problems rolling out government-created coronavirus testing kits — though the Trump administration insists those have been solved.

In March, Trump banned travel from European countries after previously halting travel from China as the virus continued to spread. Since then, the travel ban has stayed in place as state governors have gone a step further and implemented stay at home orders — something Trump has resisted recommending for all states.

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Meanwhile, some hospitals have said they face a “severe shortage of testing supplies” and days-long wait times for test results as well as a “widespread shortage” of personal protective equipment, according to a report released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general.

Trump grew dismissive and irritable with reporters on Monday who asked him about the report, boasting of an “incredible job” with the daily testing rate now and reiterating how the federal government has rolled out coronavirus testing kits.

Instead of talking about the initial flaws with the tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year, which hamstrung the ability of states to track the number of cases they had, the president claimed he had inherited and overhauled an “obsolete” system.

“You should say, ‘Congratulations, good job,’ instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question,” Trump said.

The number of U.S. deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic is at least 14,000 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker. The number of total confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. was at least 418,000 at the time of this report.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To help provide doctors and nurses on the front lines with life-saving medical resources, donate to Direct Relief here.