De Niro Calls Trump “A Sick Person…A Monster,” Warns Of Parallels To Hitler & Nazi Germany
03.05.2024 - 22:33
/ deadline.com
After his years-long litany of protestations against Donald Trump, Oscar-winner Robert De Niro tried to be more measured, but even more urgent, in his criticism of the former president this week. In an interview with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, the actor said, “I’m tired of calling him names…He is really, genuinely a sick person.”
Asked by Ruhle if he would ever play Trump onscreen, De Niro nearly cut off the question he was so quick to answer, “Never. There’s nothing about him — there’s not one redeeming thing in him that I can see.” (Note that De Niro did agree to play William Hale in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, whom he called “a sociopath.” Trump, it seems, is beyond the pale.)
To those who would hold their noses and vote for Trump despite obvious failings, the actor said, “I don’t think they understand how dangerous it will be if he ever, God forbid, becomes president [again]. I don’t think they really understand. And, historically, from what I see, in Nazi Germany they had it with Hitler. They don’t take him seriously. Looks like a clown. Acts like a clown. Mussolini, same thing. These guys, I don’t know why, they look like clowns. Somehow people, that element of society, identifies with them.”
In terms of what a second Trump term would mean, De Niro said, “It would be chaos beyond our imagination. There’s no mystery about him. He’s right out front, and what he says is what it’ll be if he becomes president.”
Asked if he thought American democracy was at risk, the Oscar-winner said his concern was even more basic.
“It’s about right and wrong. Period. The guy’s a monster. It’s beyond wrong. It’s almost like he wants to do the most horrible things that he can think of in order to