Right-wing musician Pat Boone urges president to speak less, follow Reagan’s example

SEPTEMBER 19, 2026 18:14American singer and actor Pat Boone, one of the biggest pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s and a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, issued a friendly but pointed message to the president on Saturday, urging him to talk less, listen more, and take a page from former president Ronald Reagan.Boone, best known for hits including "Love Letters in the Sand," addressed Trump directly in a social media post, saying he was offering his advice "in the spirit of friendship and concern.""I've known and supported President Trump for many years, and I offer these thoughts in the spirit of friendship and concern," Boone wrote."Sometimes the strongest thing a leader can do is say less, listen more, and let his actions speak for themselves. I'm praying for our President, as I hope all Americans will, and I'm asking him to remember the example of Ronald Reagan: humor, courtesy, respect, and a presidential manner even in difficult times."Mr. President, I say this as a friend. For just a little while, try being quiet. You may be surprised how loudly that silence speaks."Now in his 90s, Boone was among the defining American pop performers of the pre-Beatles era. His recording of "Love Letters in the Sand" became one of his signature songs, and he remained a major presence on the Billboard charts for years. NPR described Boone last year as a one-time staple of the charts who sold tens of millions of records over the course of his lengthy career.FORMER US president Ronald Reagan is joined by his wife, former first lady Nancy Reagan, and daughter Maureen Reagan, in 1991, in Sacramento, California. In 2004, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, he died at the age of 93. (credit: LEE CELANO/REUTERS)He has also long been identified with conservative politics.Boone supported Trump during the 2016 campaign and recorded robocalls aimed at Christian and senior voters on Trump's behalf in the closing days before the election. In a 2022 interview with The Daily Beast, Boone said he had voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.Reagan as the Republican model politicianBoone's invocation of Reagan is not incidental.He appeared with Reagan at political and White House events throughout the 1980s. Records from the Reagan Presidential Library show Boone appearing alongside the president at a 1982 Washington charity reception, an Illinois Republican rally later that year, and a National Religious Broadcasters convention in 1984.In Saturday's message, Boone held up Reagan's style — humor, civility, and presidential restraint even amid political conflict — as the model he believes Trump should follow.Nor is this the first time Boone has urged Trump to change his rhetoric.In the 2022 interview, Boone recalled speaking directly to Trump during the 2016 campaign, asking him to stop using insulting nicknames and behaving, in Boone's words, like a "schoolyard bully," because it was not presidential. Boone later said he believed Trump had frequently been "his own worst enemy" because of his manner and speech.His latest appeal thus continues a line of criticism Boone has voiced for years — not of Trump's policy agenda, but of the way he communicates and responds to his opponents.The timing is notable.Boone posted his message one day after Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would be banned from the White House, accusing the three news organizations of repeatedly publishing what he called "fake news," "fiction," and "lies." Trump also warned that other outlets could follow.Boone did not mention the media ban in his message, and there is no basis to say his comments were a direct response to the decision.His appeal, however, came as Trump intensified his public attacks on news organizations and defended the ban in exchanges with reporters at the White House.For Boone, the advice was, in the end, simple: a president does not always need to answer."Sometimes the strongest thing a leader can do," he wrote, "is say less, listen more, and let his actions speak for themselves."Follow us on Google