‘Loving our country looks like an abused husband says he loves his abuser’: Robert De Niro leads crowd in anti-Trump rally cry | film

Robert De Niro renewed his attack on Donald Trump at an event in New York on Sunday. While speaking at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment, the actor led the audience in a repeated cry of “Shut up!” In response to various statements and policies of the current president.

“I’m very close to being an advocate for absolute freedom of expression,” De Niro said. “Even expression that I don’t like, and there’s a lot of that around me. So when I hear something I don’t like, I use my freedom of expression to respond.”

“When I hear Trump say, as he did a few days ago: ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, not even a little,’ I say: ‘Shut up,'” he said.

De Niro’s choice of words evokes a famous scene in the 1988 comedy, in which his character responds to repeated inquiries about his tragic private life by co-star Charles Grodin.

At the event on Sunday, De Niro gave another example of what he considered terrible leadership, saying: “On Wednesday, Trump said, ‘I like inflation.’” He then asked the crowd to say, “Shut up!” With him, which they duly did.

De Niro continued: “Trump said he won the 2020 election. Are you ready? Shut up!”

The actor, who often finds himself at odds with Trump, also compared today’s expressions of patriotism to domestic violence.

“I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to look like an abused husband saying he loves his abuser,” he said.

He added: “I cannot love a country that starts stupid and inhumane wars, kills thousands of innocent people and indirectly causes the death and suffering of millions more.”

“I cannot love a country that takes health care away from millions of people and uses that money to enrich their friends on the Trump-Epstein side. I cannot love a country that sends masked militias to shoot citizens in the streets, torture our neighbors, and break up families.

“I cannot love a country led by a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic tyrant. And let me say this: I cannot love a country led by Donald Trump and his sycophantic Congress.”

He concluded by saying: “I want to love my country again. I want to return my country.”

Earlier this year, Trump took umbrage at the actor calling the president an “idiot,” telling Nicole Wallace on her podcast, “We’ve got to get rid of him. He’s going to destroy the country.”

The president described the actor as “unhinged”, “sick and imbecile” and with a very low IQ.