A MarketWatch reader recently took to the comments section to hail Donald Trump as “the 21st Century’s Abe Lincoln.” Microsoft’s MSFT, -3.29% Bill Gates on Tuesday offered a flattering presidential parallel of his own in an interview on CNBC:

“ ‘In the same way President Kennedy talked about the space mission and got the country behind that. ... I think whether it’s education or stopping epidemics ... [or] in this energy space, there can be a very upbeat message that [Trump’s] administration [is] going to organize things, get rid of regulatory barriers, and have American leadership through innovation.’ ” — Bill Gates

He said that, while they have friends in common, he’d just spoken to Trump for the first time and that “a lot of his message has been about ... where he sees things not as good as he’d like.”