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Robert De Niro has renewed his vocal opposition to Donald Trump, saying “there’s no other way to face a bully”.
The actor spoke to MSNBC on Sunday in support of the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests, which saw millions take to the streets across the US. De Niro said there needed to be “much more” resistance, adding: “The politicians are going to recognise that: either face the wrath of Trump or the wrath of the people – and they have to be more afraid of the wrath of the people.”
De Niro also said that Trump’s plans to seek a third term had to be opposed. “We cannot let up on him because he is not going to leave the White House. He does not want to leave the White House. He will not leave the White House. Anybody [who] thinks, ‘Oh, he’ll do this, he’ll do that,’ is just deluding themselves.”
He added: “It’s a classic bully situation. We see it, and there’s no other way to face a bully. You have to face him and fight it out and back them off and back him down. That’s the only way this is going to work.”
De Niro had previously shown his support for the No Kings protest in a video in which he said: “The original No Kings protest was 250 years ago. Americans decided they didn’t want to live under the rule of King George III. They declared their independence and fought a bloody war for democracy. We’ve had two and a half centuries of democracy since then. Often challenging, sometimes messy, always essential. And we fought in two world wars to preserve it.”
He added: “Now we have a would-be king who wants to take it away. King Donald the First. Fuck that. We’re rising up again. … We’re all in this together, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
De Niro has a long history of speaking out against Trump. In a pre-election video in 2016 he described Trump as “a bullshit artist” and in 2019 he told the Guardian: “I can’t wait to see him in jail.” In 2023 he called Trump “evil” and “a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics”, and in May this year told the Guardian: “The man is a bully and you can’t let bullies win.”
