Robert De Niro has never been shy about sharing his disdain for Donald Trump. But while he had plenty to say about the president on Monday when he stopped by the set of The View, he reserved his sharpest criticism for the president’s children.
Before they could get to his latest film, The Irishman, De Niro dove straight into the conversation about impeachment. “No matter what happens, which we know probably in the Senate he won't get convicted or whatever, but we have to do this,” he said. “We have to go through the motions. Symbolically, it means something. It's a taint on his presidency, more than a taint. It's a stain, one that he deeply deserves.”
When co-host Abby Huntsman asked the actor if he thinks Democrats should impeach Trump “even if that means that could risk Republicans winning in the election,” De Niro quickly shut down that argument. “We don't have time for that,” he said. “He did something wrong. He has to pay for it, period.”
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In a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine, De Niro said that he could never play Trump on screen because there’s “nothing redeemable about him.” Joy Behar wanted to know if he really thinks Trump is worse than Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle or Raging Bull’s Jake LaMotta.
“To me, he is,” De Niro said. “Because he has no understanding that I can see of the outside world other than anything around him. He has no idea of what his purpose in life as the president should be, and that is to pull the country together, to be for the people, to heal wounds, not to open them up and pour salt on them.”
“I always say he's a low life,” he continued. “And he knows he's a low life. He knows everything he projects about negative things on individuals, on situations, on institutions, he's saying about himself.” As an example, De Niro cited what Trump said about the late Senator John McCain during the 2016 campaign, prompting Meghan McCain to speak for the first time since Whoopi Goldberg told her to “stop talking” earlier in the show.
“He's deeply emasculated by my father's legacy and he can't take it, that's what it's about,” McCain said.
Then came De Niro’s take on Trump’s adult children. “I don't want my kids to take this the wrong way, but if my kids did what these kids did, I wouldn't want to be related to them. I would disown them,” he said, prompting a few gasps from the audience. “I would have a serious talk with them.”
He said it’s an “impossibility” because his kids are “not like that of course,” but went on to imply that they have disagreements regarding how “strongly” he feels about the Trump presidency. “This guy has got to be taken seriously,” De Niro said, “and he's got to be taken out of office.”
