Robert De Niro has renewed his attack on Donald Trump at an event in New York on Sunday. Speaking at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment, the actor led the crowd in a repeated cry of 'shut the fuck up!' in response to assorted remarks and policies of the current president.
A Call to Free Speech
'I'm pretty close to being a free speech absolutist,' said De Niro, 'even speech I don't like, and there's plenty of that around. So when I hear something I don't like, I use my own free speech to respond.'
'When I hear Trump say, as he did a few days ago, 'I don't think about Americans' financial situation, not even a little bit,' I say, 'Shut the fuck up,'' he said.
Invoking a Classic Scene
De Niro's choice of words invokes a famed scene in the 1988 comedy in which his character responds to repeated inquiries over his calamitous private life by co-star Charles Grodin.
At the event on Sunday, De Niro offered a further example of what he considered egregious leadership, saying: 'On Wednesday, Trump said, 'I love the inflation.'' He then asked the crowd to say 'Shut the fuck up!' with him, which they duly did.
De Niro continued: 'Trump said he won the 2020 election. Ready? Shut the fuck up!'
Comparing Patriotism to Abuse
The actor, who frequently finds himself at loggerheads with Trump, also compared expressions of patriotism today to domestic abuse.
'I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser,' he said.
He added: 'I can't love a country that starts stupid and inhumane wars, killing thousands of innocents and indirectly causing the deaths and suffering of millions more.
'I can't love a country that takes healthcare away from millions of people and uses that money to enrich their pals in the Trump-Epstein class. I can't love a country that sends out masked militias to shoot citizens in the streets, torture our neighbours, and separate families.
'I can't love a country that's led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant. And let me just say it: I can't love the country that's led by Donald Trump and his sycophant Congress.'
He concluded by saying: 'I want to love my country again. I want my country back.'
Previous Clashes
Earlier this year, Trump took considerable umbrage with the actor's description of the president as 'an idiot', saying telling Nicole Wallace on her podcast 'We gotta get rid of him. He's gonna ruin the country.'
The president called the actor 'deranged', 'sick and demented' with 'an extremely low IQ'.
