Robert De Niro on Donald Trump: You have to fight. There is no other way to confront a bully’ | film

Robert De Niro renewed his staunch opposition to Donald Trump, saying: “There’s no other way to stand up to a bully.”

The actor spoke to MSNBC on Sunday in support of the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests, which have seen millions take to the streets across the US. De Niro said “more” resistance was needed, adding: “Politicians will realize this: They will either face the wrath of Trump or the wrath of the people – and they will have to be more afraid of the wrath of the people.”

De Niro also said that Trump’s plans to run for a third term should be opposed. “We can’t abandon him because he won’t leave the White House. He doesn’t want to leave the White House. He won’t leave the White House. Anyone.” [who] “Thinking, ‘Oh, he’ll do this, he’ll do that,’ is just deceiving themselves.”

He added: “It’s a classic bully situation. We see that, and there’s no other way to stand up to the bully. You have to confront him, fight him, back away from him, back away from him. That’s the only way it’s 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 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. It’s often difficult, sometimes chaotic, And always necessary. We fought two world wars to preserve it.”

He added: “Now we have a would-be king who wants to take it away. King Donald I. Fuck that. We rise again. … We are all in this together, inseparable from freedom and justice for all.”

De Niro has a long history of speaking out against Trump. In a 2016 pre-election video, he called Trump a “bullshit artist,” and in 2019 he told The Guardian: “I can’t wait to see him in prison.” In 2023, he called Trump “evil” and “a tough guy with no morals or ethics,” and in May this year he told The Guardian: “The guy is a bully and you can’t let bullies win.”