“I thank God no one’s been hurt”: the terrifying moment Robert De Niro was sent a mail bomb
You’re never going to find too many outspoken Donald Trump fans in Hollywood; quite simply, the politics of those in show business have never really aligned with the type of policies spouted by the ‘Mango Mussolini’, but few actors have been quite as vocal about their dislike for him over the years as Robert De Niro.
His beef with the tweeter-in-chief goes way back, probably before Trump somehow managed to claim the presidency for the first time in 2016, but it was around then that he first made his feelings about ‘Captain Carrot’ clear, stating that he was “stupid”, “a pig”, “a dog”, “a con” and a “bullshit artist” who he would quite happily punch in the face, which is about as plain a statement about someone that you’re likely to read.
De Niro’s opinion on the ‘tangerine toddler’ didn’t improve once he’d taken office either, with the actor stating that half the US was horrified at having him as the president and telling students at a university where he was speaking that they were graduating into a tragic, dumbass comedy. And in 2018, he probably made his most effective and simple statement about the man yet, as he stood in front of a crowd at the Tony awards and definitely declared, “Fuck Trump”.
Trump is obviously no shrinking violet, and eventually responded to the barbs by saying, “Robert De Niro, a very low IQ individual, has received too many shots to the head by real boxers in movies”, which is quite a decent comeback, let’s be fair. But even he couldn’t support the lengths one of his supporters went in trying to get back at De Niro, alongside some other vocal opponents like Joe Biden and George Soros, by delivering explosive devices to their offices.
Fortunately, security at De Niro’s TV company thought there was something up with the package signed for at five one morning and notified the NYPD, who examined it and decided it matched up with the other pipe bombs sent to liberal figures in the city.
De Niro himself said, “I thank God no one’s been hurt, and I thank the brave and resourceful security and law enforcement people for protecting us. There’s something more powerful than bombs, and that’s your vote. People MUST vote!”
Perhaps people listened to him, because just over a year later, Trump was out of the White House on his ear, although as we saw from the January 6th invasion, he didn’t exactly go quietly. Four years later, the ‘digital despot’ was back, and once more De Niro was out in public making his displeasure clear to everyone, making statements about “clowns becoming vicious dictators” that cost him a leadership award from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Just a few weeks ago, both Trump and De Niro found themselves in the same building at the US Supreme Court for a hearing about birthright citizenship and on his way in, the actor again made his feelings clear, saying, “People don’t like him for a reason. All the terrible things he’s done”.
Of course, within days, that kind of feeling was made clear as someone at the White House Correspondents’ dinner tried to get to Trump without success, in an assassination attempt that definitely wasn’t staged. Meanwhile, De Niro will be trying to put a smile on other people’s faces even if he can’t muster one as his latest instalment in the Meet the Fockers comedy franchise with Ben Stiller hits cinemas in November, titled Focker-in-law. Presumably, the ‘Kumquat Kommander’ won’t be invited to the premiere.
