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Donald Trump has spoken out following Robert De Niro’s recent podcast appearance, where he called the president “an idiot.”
During Monday’s episode of MSNBC’s The Best People with Nicole Wallace podcast, the 82-year-old actor heavily criticized Trump and his MAGA supporters.
“He’s an idiot. We gotta get rid of him. He’s gonna ruin the country,” he said, adding, “ I don’t want everybody going around with their MAGA, the American flags, like they’re the only ones. We are Americans too.”
De Niro then headlined “The State of the Swamp,” a counter-address that took place at the same time as Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday.
The president responded Wedesday in a lengthy Truth Social post, labeling the Goodfellas actor a “sick and demented person.”
Donald Trump recently turned to Truth Social to write a lengthy post about the response to Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, including Robert De Niro’s State of the Swamp (Getty Images)
“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 institutionalized,” he began.
“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!”
Speaking at The State of the Swamp event, De Niro shared that he felt “betrayed by my country.”
“It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to return to the values that gave us our strength and humanity,” he said. “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.”
The two-time Oscar-winning actor has been outspoken against Trump since the lead-up to his second-term election in 2024. In a pre-election interview in November on HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, De Niro — who was a vocal supporter of Kamala Harris’s election campaign — branded Trump and his allies “not real Republicans.”

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Wallace went on to ask De Niro whether the actor had any run-ins with the real estate mogul-turned-politician in New York during the 1970s and 1980s, and whether there was any personal animosity between the pair.
“No. I never wanted anything to do with him,” responded De Niro. “He’s a jerk, an idiot, who wants to meet a clown like that?
“You’ve got to help everybody. People are going to get overlooked. That happens, but at least you have somebody who’s sensitive to the condition of the country, the people. And I’m not saying this like this, because it’s Kamala Harris, but it is. We need someone like her to do it,” the Taxi Driver star added.
“She’ll make mistakes. Of course, everybody does, but we need somebody with the right intentions, this guy does not have the right intentions, and everybody knows that. It’s insanity. Period.”
