“I Love Donald Trump” — As Clinton Sat for Deposition

On Friday, February 27, 2026, two scenes played out simultaneously in two very different parts of the country.

In Chappaqua, New York, former President Bill Clinton sat behind closed doors for over six hours, answering questions under oath about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Lawmakers showed him photographs. He said he didn’t know the women in them. He said he did nothing wrong. It was the first time a former president had ever been compelled to testify before Congress under subpoena.

In Corpus Christi, Texas, the actor who once played Clinton on screen stepped behind the presidential seal at a Donald Trump rally and said four words: “I love Donald Trump.”

The actor was Dennis Quaid. And his relationship with both of these presidents is far more personal than most people realize.

Two Presidents, One Actor

For the 2010 HBO film The Special Relationship, Quaid portrayed Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal — a performance that earned him Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild nominations. To match Clinton’s build, he ate McDonald’s every day for four months on what he described as “a baby on a feeding schedule,” gaining 35 pounds. He shaved his eyebrows, donned a wig, and studied miles of footage until the transformation was near-complete.

He took the role because he genuinely admired the man. In 1999, just weeks after the Senate acquitted Clinton of impeachment charges, the president invited Quaid to spend a weekend at the White House. Hillary was away. The two watched March Madness, ate Subway sandwiches in the presidential limousine, played golf, and threw a tennis ball around for Buddy the dog. “He was just a great guy,” Quaid told The Daily Beast. “And the smartest man I’ve ever met.”

That was then. On Friday, Quaid was seated at a conference table aboard Air Force One, directly next to Trump, with the “Aboard Air Force One” plaque over his shoulder. Senator Ted Cruz posted a photo of them grinning together on the flight to Texas. Then came the rally, where Trump brought Quaid onstage and, after the declaration, offered a plug: “He’s got a new movie coming out by the way.”

That movie is War Machine, a Netflix sci-fi thriller starring Alan Ritchson, dropping March 6 — exactly one week later.

The Independent Who Picked a Side

Quaid’s political identity has always been harder to pin down than this moment suggests.

In 2008, he attended an Obama fundraiser where he told the crowd even his infant twins lit up whenever Obama appeared on television. In August 2024, he told Joe Rogan he’d “been an independent all my life” and that both parties “need each other.” Nine days before his Air Force One ride, he repeated his “common-sense independent” label on a pastor’s podcast.

But the film résumé had been quietly writing a different story. After the Clinton role, he starred in the 2024 Reagan biopic — a passion project. By October of that year, he was appearing at a Trump campaign rally in Coachella, calling Reagan his “favorite president of the 20th century” and Trump his “favorite of the 21st.” Friday wasn’t a sudden flip. It was the next step — from rally guest to Air Force One passenger to podium declaration.

And the timing could not have been sharper. As one president he’d portrayed sat for the most consequential testimony of his post-presidential life, Quaid was 30,000 feet in the air with the other. Trump himself, departing the White House that morning, told reporters: “I like Bill Clinton and I don’t like seeing him deposed.”

Hollywood Is Taking Notes

Lauren Holly, who played Quaid’s on-screen wife in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday, responded to the Air Force One photos with a comment that racked up nearly 7,000 likes: “At least I got to slap him real hard in Any Given Sunday.”

Fans who grew up on Quaid’s films expressed a familiar grief. Some predicted his career was finished. Others zeroed in on the Netflix premiere date and asked the question Quaid hasn’t answered: was this conviction or a very well-timed press tour?

Quaid has said that Hollywood publicists warned him to stay silent about politics or risk losing work, and that endorsing Democrats was accepted while supporting Trump made you untouchable. It’s partly why he left Los Angeles for Nashville, where he said he felt “more at home.”

Whether the man who once spent a weekend in Bill Clinton’s White House, called him a genius, fundraised for Obama, and told Joe Rogan both parties need each other has genuinely changed — or simply found the side where the cameras are pointing — the comments section will decide.