The actor Robert DeNiro is famous for his leading roles, including such famous movies as Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part II, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, The Untouchables, Cape Fear, GoodFellas, Casino and many, many others. But of late, DeNiro has become famous for something else: a nearly nonstop stream of verbal abuse directed at then-candidate and now-President Donald Trump.
It’s unclear at what point DeNiro’s hatred for Trump started, but it may have had something to do with real estate or perhaps offhand comments Trump has made over the years about the actor. With both men being veterans of New York’s elite social scene for decades, it’s quite possible that their paths have crossed over the years.
It’s also possible that the politics of DeNiro — a longtime Democrat who lobbied Congress against the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 and supported John Kerry for president in 2004 — are what drives the rancor.
DeNiro gave a speech at an Obama rally in New Jersey in 2008, telling the crowd, “I’ve never made a speech like this at a political event before. So, what am I doing here? Finally, one person has inspired me. Guess who?” (At the time, DeNiro was referring to Obama, not Trump. Much later, in 2016, Obama paid DeNiro back for his efforts by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.)
After Obama had served nearly one full term, Trump was mulling running for president himself and announced that he wished to investigate the president’s birthplace. At this gesture, DeNiro took umbrage and referred to Trump (multiple times) as “a car salesman.”
In retaliation, Trump told Fox News that DeNiro “was not the brightest bulb on the planet” and elaborated on the entertainer, hilariously noting, “I’ve been watching over the years, and I like his acting, but in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we’re not dealing with Albert Einstein.”
When the media pressed DeNiro about Trump’s comments about Obama, the actor stated somewhat diplomatically, “I won’t mention names, but there are certain people on the news in the last couple of weeks — what they’re doing is crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.”
Perhaps hinting at political reality as well as possible future political candidates, the Oscar-winner added, “[Obama’s] intentions are really good. Maybe some things are not as good as we all would like, but his intentions are good. A lot of these guys — their intentions are not even good. They’re just playing a game, and they’re playing with people’s lives.”
Fast forward to 2015, and DeNiro’s war of words with the real estate magnate heated up again. In an interview, DeNiro threw his weight behind Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, ineptly saying of the corrupt former Secretary of State, “There are going to be no surprises, and she’s earned the right to be president and the head of the country at this point. It’s that simple. And she’s a woman, which is very important because her take on things may be what we need right now.”
As the race wore on, DeNiro amped up his public comments about Trump. In August of 2016, at the opening of a film festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, DeNiro said that Trump should have quit the presidential race because he’s “totally nuts… I don’t know; it’s crazy that people like Donald Trump… he shouldn’t be where he is, so God help us. What he’s been saying is really, totally crazy, ridiculous. But I think now they are really starting to push back — the media — finally, they are starting to say, come on Donald, this is ridiculous, this is nuts, this is insane.”
In October, the actor finally seemed to have gone off the deep end when a notorious video started making the rounds on social media just weeks before the election. In it, a gruff and stern DeNiro dressed in black spews a vicious rant about Trump that could have come from any one of his gangster characters, particularly Al Capone in The Untouchables.
Of Trump, DeNiro says angrily, “He’s blatantly stupid. He’s a punk. He’s a dog. He’s a pig. He’s a con, a bulls*** artist. [He’s] a mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t care, thinks he’s gaming his society, doesn’t pay taxes. He’s an idiot. Colin Powell said it best; he’s a national disaster. He’s an embarrassment to this country. It makes me so angry that this country has gotten to this point that this fool, this bozo, has wound up where he has.”
DeNiro then unrepentantly speaks of getting violent with Trump, saying, “He talks how he wants to punch people in the face; well, I’d like to punch him in the face. This is somebody we want for president? I don’t think so. What I care about is the direction of this country, and what I’m very, very worried about is that it might go in the wrong direction with someone like Donald Trump.” The video was seen tens of millions of times on Youtube, Facebook and other social media platforms.
After the video was released, DeNiro was forced to defend his crudeness, stating, “I said that because he said that about somebody, that he would like to punch them in the face. How dare he say that to the crowd? How dare he say the things he does? Of course I want to punch him in the face. It was only a symbolic thing, anyway. It wasn’t like I was going to go find him and punch him in the face. But he’s got to hear it. He’s got to hear that, you know, that’s how he makes people feel. It’s not good to feel that way. It’s not good to start that stuff up, but at the same time, sometimes when people are bullies like that, that’s what you have to do to shut them up — bully them back.”
Jon Voigt, the Oscar-winning actor, famous conservative and co-star in the movie Heat with DeNiro, weighed in on DeNiro’s speech, tweeting, “I am so ashamed of my fellow actor Bobby DeNiro’s rant against Donald Trump. What foul words he used against a presidential nominee who has worked harder than any other man I know in the past year and a half to get a good message to the American people.”
Voigt excused Trump’s poorly-chosen remarks captured on video in 2005 on an Access Hollywood tour bus, saying, “I don’t know of too many men who haven’t expressed some sort of similar sexual terms toward women, especially in their younger years” and called on Trump supporters to express “anger” and “outrage” at DeNiro by voting for Trump.
For his part, DeNiro responded that “Voigt is a nice guy, but he’s delusional. The Republican Party has rationalized that his guy is sane, that this guy should be president. It’s awful, they will self-destruct.”
DeNiro urged everyday Americans to oppose Trump. “They have to vote, they must vote, it’s imperative that you vote, it’s a very serious situation… Everybody has to be vigilant to make sure that this guy does not become president. Let’s not win by a margin, let’s make sure he’s crushed … because he represents so many horrible things.”
Voigt was not the only actor DeNiro criticized regarding Trump. At a movie industry trade show, the actor shunned Republican ex-Governor of California and fellow screen legend Arnold Schwarzenegger, refusing to appear in a photo with the mighty action star and telling him, “If you’re supporting Trump, I want nothing to do with you.”
Oddly enough, Schwarzenegger has since taken over Trump’s role on the Celebrity Apprentice television show and has had a gossip-column spat with Trump — a topic worthy of discussion unto itself.
After Trump won the presidential election by a large margin, DeNiro — a famous denizen of the Ground Zero-proximate Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca — was quoted as saying Trump’s win made him “depressed… like I felt after 9/11” — somehow equating the Republican candidate’s win with the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, adding that “there will be many, many, many, many, many people watching” Trump’s actions as president.
Then, for some reason, the dispirited actor seemed initially to have mellowed out in the weeks following Trump’s election. In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, DeNiro said that he would have to respect Trump because he was the president. “I have to respect that position, even though we all know what he… anyway. We have to see what he’s going to do and how he’s really going to follow through on certain things. As we even see now, in a lot of cities, a lot of people are getting very upset and protesting.”
In fact, it was DeNiro himself who was one of the A-list actors leading protests in New York on the day prior to Trump’s inauguration. He, along with entertainers Sally Field, Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Mark Ruffalo, Cher and others, stood outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower to demonstrate against the new president.
DeNiro made fun of Trump at the protest, joking that a tweet from the new president might read “De Niro’s career is a disaster… he should give back his Oscars. Voting was rigged. There’s only one true raging bull, and that is Vladimir Putin.”
Across the country, at the Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood, actress Meryl Streep made a much-talked-about 6-minute televised speech denouncing Trump. Afterward, DeNiro wrote a letter to the star Trump referred to as “overrated” in a tweet. “I have so much respect for you that you did it while the world was celebrating your achievements. Enough is enough. You, with your elegance and intelligence, have a powerful voice – one that inspires others to speak up as they should, so their voices will be heard too.”
DeNiro may take comfort in the fact that the Greenwich Hotel in New York City, which he owns, has been taking business away — particularly amongst the Hollywood set — from the Trump Soho hotel just half a mile away. At the same time, reviews for DeNiro’s latest movie The Comedian have been scathing, continuing a long downward trend in critical reaction for the formerly lauded icon. In fact, it’s quite possible that politics is a welcome retreat for DeNiro after so many box-office bombs he’s starred in the last decade or so.
Certainly, should DeNiro want to seek further escape, it’s been offered. Antonio Cerio, the mayor of Ferrazano in Italy where DeNiro’s grandparents hailed from, told the press, “If, after the disappointments of Trump, he wants to take refuge here, we are ready to welcome him.” If Trump continues to get on DeNiro’s nerves the way he has in the last few years, the actor may want to take the mayor up on his offer.
