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Oscar winner Robert De Niro attended a “Rise Up” event last night as part of some counterprogramming to Donald Trump’s 80th birthday cage fight celebrations.
The New York event, which celebrated the First Amendment, saw the 82-year-old screen legend speak out against Trump.
“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.”
De Niro then cited a recent example, and made reference to a 1988 movie classic.
“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.
Those words echo a scene in the comedy Midnight Run, in which De Niro’s character Jack Walsh responds to Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin) by saying: “Here come two words for you: ‘Shut the fuck up’.”
De Niro also offered another example: “On Wednesday, Trump said, ‘I love the inflation’.” It was at this point that the audience started a chant of the famous Midnight Run line.
The actor also established a link between today’s expressions of patriotism and 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. “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,” he added. “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: “I want to love my country again. I want my country back.”
Check out De Niro’s speech below (1:44:45 mark):
This is far from the first time that De Niro has expressed his dislike for Trump.
Earlier this year, following his State of the Union address, Trump called for some of his “lunatic” opponents to be deported. These included Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (both Democrats and American citizens), as well as De Niro.
Trump posted that Omar and Tlaib “should actually get on a boat with Trump Deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying – some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!”
He continued, regarding De Niro: “When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States. The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much.”
Last year, Trump threatened to revoke the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government.
Following his re-election, O’Donnell moved to Ireland.