Robert De Niro hits out at Donald Trump at ‘Megalopolis’ premiere
Never one to turn down the opportunity to take shots at Donald Trump, Robert De Niro used the premiere of Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating epic Megalopolis as his latest platform for urging his fellow Americans not to vote for the Republican politician in the upcoming election.
For years, the acting legend has seized any available opportunity to denigrate the former star of The Apprentice, including a rallying cry issued earlier this year when incumbent Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, where he insisted that “there is nothing more important for our country than defeating Donald Trump at the ballot box.”
The two-time Academy Award winner had already suggested that Trump should be banned from running for the highest office in the land following the guilty verdict issued at the politician’s hush money trial, to which he responded by labelling De Niro as a “wacko.”
In the grand scheme of things, Coppola’s passion project has absolutely nothing to do with Trump or the race for the White House, but when the filmmaker brought De Niro and Spike Lee along for the ride, it was inevitable that two such outspoken figures were going to draw attention to issues much larger than cinema.
“Just imagine Donald Trump directing this film,” De Niro said. “It’ll never go anywhere from total craziness. He cannot do anything. He cannot hold anything together. He wants to destroy the country. And he could not do this movie. He could not do anything that has a structure.”
Things did get back on track in a roundabout way, though, with De Niro offering parallels between the futuristic dystopia of Megalopolis and what he thinks will happen to America if The Apprentice focal point ends up being successful in his bid for reelection.
“I see the things in Francis’ film about that, the parallels and so on. To me, it’s not over until it’s over, and we have to go at this wholeheartedly to beat the Republicans; those Republicans, they’re not real Republicans and beat Trump,” he continued. “It’s that simple. We cannot have that type of person. Everybody has to get out there and vote.”
In the interest of fairness, Coppola made a point of noting he’d intentionally cast actors who “are voting another way,” refusing to name names despite the fact everybody knows he’s talking about Jon Voight. Still, De Niro saw his chance, and based on the bad blood between the icon and Trump, he was never going to pass it up.
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