Snerdley Score: 2/5 Fog lifted
Source story headline: De Niro says he can’t love America, compares country to abusive husband
For decades, Robert De Niro built a reputation playing tough guys on the silver screen. These days, however, the Oscar-winning actor seems far more interested in playing the role of Hollywood’s most relentless anti-Trump activist.
Speaking at a political event in New York City over the weekend, De Niro launched into yet another blistering attack on President Donald Trump, this time declaring that he can no longer love America while Trump occupies the White House.
The actor took particular issue with language from a public letter he previously signed defending late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel after reports that Kimmel’s show would be ending. According to De Niro, one line in the letter rubbed him the wrong way: “We love our country regardless of political affiliation.”
That sentiment, he told the audience, simply no longer rings true.
“The phrase, ‘We all love our country,’ stuck in my throat,” De Niro said. “Because our country isn’t so lovable right now. I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser.”
From there, the veteran actor delivered a sweeping condemnation of American foreign policy, immigration enforcement, healthcare policy, and the Trump administration itself. “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,” De Niro said.
He continued: “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 neighbors, and separate families.”
Then came the line that likely drew the loudest applause from the Manhattan crowd. “I can’t love a country that’s led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant,” De Niro declared. “And let me just say it: I can’t love the country that’s led by Donald Trump and his sycophant Congress.”
The remarks were hardly surprising coming from one of Trump’s longest-running celebrity critics. De Niro has spent years turning awards shows, interviews, and public appearances into anti-Trump platforms. Since Trump’s return to office, the actor’s rhetoric has only intensified.
Earlier this year, De Niro became emotional during a television interview while discussing what he believes is at stake politically. At one point, he urged opponents of the administration to continue resisting.
“People have to resist, resist, resist, resist, resist. That’s the only way,” he said. “There’s no magic. There’s no nothing — people are not going to go away, even if Trump dies for some reason by having an illness or something.”
He added that elements of the broader political movement supporting Trump remain “the scary part” and argued that it “has to be neutralized by the people.”
During the same interview, De Niro became visibly emotional while discussing unity and political division. “You have to lift people up,” he said through tears. “You have to bring them together. Period. You can’t divide people. You can’t win that way. It’s a no-win situation.”
The White House was unimpressed.
Responding to De Niro’s latest comments, spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the actor in unusually sharp terms, dismissing him as “a washed-up has-been” and accusing him of spreading hatred while suffering from what many conservatives jokingly refer to as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
De Niro, for his part, rejects the label entirely.
Asked about the criticism in a recent interview, the actor called the accusation “nonsense.” “People don’t like him for a reason,” De Niro said of Trump. “All the terrible things he’s done. If he did nice things, people would love him. But he’s got a problem. He’s damaged.”
