Robert De Niro excoriated President Trump as the actor accepted a lifetime achievement award in New York Monday night.
During his acceptance of The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award, De Niro blasted what he perceived as Trump’s apparent “hostility toward art.” He pointed to Trump’s proposed budget and highlighted cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to suggest the administration believes funding for such programs benefits only liberal elites.
“The administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programs goes to rich liberal elites. This is what they now call an ‘alternative fact,'” De Niro said in his acceptance speech. “I call it what it is: bullshit.”
The “Goodfellas” actor appeared in a celebrity “Get Out the Vote” ad prior to the November election in which he said he wanted to punch Trump in the face and called him a “punk,” “pig,” “con,” “bozo” and an “embarrassment to this country” – sentiments he repeated during a February appearance on “The View.”
He also joined with liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio to lead a massive anti-Trump protest on the eve of his inauguration.
“I don’t make movies for rich, liberal elites — I’ve got my restaurants for that,” De Niro further joked in his speech.
