Robert De Niro let Donald Trump have it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, calling the former president a “malignant narcissist” and “socio-psychopath.”
De Niro sat down with Jimmy Kimmel to promote his new film Ezra, and the two chatted a bit about the Oscars before Kimmel decided to pull up a few of Trump’s social media posts about the actor. “You and I have something in common,” Kimmel said, “We have both been immortalized on social media by our former President Donald Trump.”
Kimmel read a few lines of social posts from Trump, in which 45 called De Niro a “low IQ individual” and said that his “acting talents have greatly diminished” in response to De Niro’s “Fuck Trump!” speech at the 72nd Tony Awards in 2018.
De Niro then shared his unfiltered thoughts: “He’s so fucking stupid,” the actor said. “Look at the lame things that he said. He’s so stupid, he can’t even say anything clever.”
This is, of course, is just one of many times De Niro has strongly criticized the former president. In 2016, De Niro told CBS Trump was a “punk,” a “con,” and a “bullshit artist” that he’d like to “punch in the face.” Just this past week, he called the former president a “total monster” on Real Time with Bill Maher.
De Niro continued his criticism of Trump this week on Kimmel. “He’s a moron, but he’s a scary one,” he said. “It’s all an act in certain way,” he continued. “It’s all out of insecurity. He’s deeply, deeply insecure. He is a malignant narcissist. He's a socio-psychopath.”
He went on to say that people’s support of Trump “baffles” him. “I can't understand it,” he said. “And it's a thing that we've seen over decades and decades and he’s a, what’s it, Tammy Faye and the other one,” he said, likening Trump to televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, before also calling him “frightening” and “dangerous.”
Republicans caught some of De Niro’s ire as well: “Shame on those Republicans that don’t have the nerve, the balls, to go after [Trump].”
“What do they tell their kids? What do they tell their grandkids later when it’s written in history books, what their role is and what they did, and [how] they allowed him to do this?” he asked. “He’s an outright criminal and they're still buying it.”
De Niro’s last main point though, he said was that “people have to get out and vote and vote and vote and vote.”