Microsoft founder Bill Gates lavished high praise on Donald Trump, likening the president-elect to John F. Kennedy, the liberal hero of the 1960s.

Gates said he came away with that impression after talking with Trump for the first time on the phone.

“I had an opportunity to talk with him about innovation,” Gates said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“A lot of his message has been about things where he sees things not as good as he’d like. But in the same way President Kennedy talked about the space mission and got the country behind that, I think that whether it’s education or stopping epidemics … [or] in this energy space, there can be a very upbeat message that his administration is going to organize things, get rid of regulatory barriers, and have American leadership through innovation,” he added.

Gates then said that what Trump’s been talking about is what Gates, as a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, has spent his life working on.

“Of course, my whole career has been along those lines. And he was interested in listening to that. And I’m sure there will be further conversations,” Gates said.