Featured Image Credit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Celebrity
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Celebrity
Donald Trump and Robert De Niro have not exactly been on great terms since...forever. But why?
With 14 years of back and forth (mainly forth from De Niro), it’s time to explain their entire feud, in just one article.
Wish me luck.
Just yesterday (25 February), Trump hit out at the Meet the Fockers actor on Truth Social because the star went on to headline a State of the Swamp event at the National Press Club, an event created to air during the State of the Union Address.
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De Niro called the Trump administration a bunch of ‘dishonest, greedy and cruel authoritarians’ and Trump a ‘failing, flailing, and desperate leader’, while the POTUS threatened to expel him from the US.
But he’s said worse over the years.
Let’s take it back to 2011, when De Niro first started taking hits at Trump's want to become a politician, having already been known as a famous real estate tycoon and businessman in New York.
In response, Trump went on Fox and Friends to state the actor was ‘not the brightest bulb on the planet’, leading to the pair starting their tennis match of insults.
To this day, it’s still going on.
In the years since, De Niro has said a lot about trump, particularly during his 2016 presidential campaign and election.
Famously, he said he wants to ‘punch’ Trump, and tried to sway people from voting for him.
As part of a celebrity-backed campaign warning people of his leadership during the 2016 election, De Niro said: “He’s so blatantly stupid. He’s a punk. He’s a dog. He’s a pig. A con. A bulls*** artist. A mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he said, and more.
“I’d like to punch him in the face,” he added in the video.
However, when Trump got into power, he revealed how the nation was feeling, stating in an interview: “He’s president now … half the country is horrified, many parts of the world are, and we’re gonna see how he does. That’s it. I give the benefit of the doubt that’s he going to try his best to do the right thing."
One year later at a NY benefit he then took aim again at the POTUS’s policies, regarding pay, healthcare, and the arts, calling the administration 'mean-spirited'.
He then received a standing ovation in 2018 at the Tony Awards for saying ‘f*** Trump’, so I think you’re gathering his thoughts.
Aside from that, he told the Guardian in 2019 he’s a ‘real racist’ and a ‘white supremacist’.
A few months later, he called him a ‘wannabe gangster’, and told the Daily Beast:
“Trump joked about being ‘president for life’ with [Chinese president Xi Jinping] and so on. He’ll pardon anybody, he’ll do anything. The day after he was elected, I went on a TV show and said I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and say that I hope he won’t be as bad as I think he will be, but he’s turned out to be a lot worse.”
The president has also had his fair shots in about De Niro, calling him brain-damaged, tweeting in 2019: “Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received too many shots to the head by real boxers in movies.
“I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punch-drunk’.”
But lately, he’s gotten a lot worse than that.
Very recently, when De Niro went on Nicolle Wallace's The Best People podcast, the 82-year-old called Trump ‘an idiot'.
"We gotta get rid of him," De Niro began. "He's gonna ruin the country. I don’t want everybody going around with their MAGA, the American flags, like they’re the only ones. We are Americans too."
That’s when Trump responded in kind, telling him ‘your movies suck’.
At the State of the Swamp event, the actor claimed to have felt a 'betrayal' by his country, telling attendees: "It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to return to the values that gave us our strength and humanity.
"If you want our leaders to be accountable, if you’re devoted to the constitution and the rule of law, if you want the United States of America to be worthy of your love, be ready to take to the streets together, and we will take our country back."
Trump seemingly didn’t like this and hit out, first taking aim at Democratic politicians Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, claiming they need to be 'sent back from where they came'.
"When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalised.”
He continued: "When people can behave like that, and knowing that they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians, so bad for our Country, we should send them back from where they came - as fast as possible.
"They can only damage the United States of America, they can do nothing to help it."
Then, turning his attention to De Niro, Trump suggested: "They 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!
"When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realised 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."
Just to remind you, Trump and comedian O'Donnell have also been battling each other, except they’ve been doing it since the early 00s.
Just after his second inauguration in January of last year, she claimed that she'd fled the US for Ireland.
"The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much," Trump added.
"The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy!"
He concluded: "PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP."