Robert De Niro has got a lot more to say about Donald Trump—but if you were watching his appearance on The View on Tuesday, you likely didn’t catch all of it.
During a sit-down to promote his new film Ezra, The View hosts couldn’t resist asking De Niro about Trump, who’s been the subject of several profanity-laced critiques by the Oscar winner. But on the ABC live daytime show, De Niro’s thoughts had to be cut short and bleeped out.
Referecing Hitler and Mussolini, De Niro began, “I don’t understand why people are not taking [Trump] seriously. You read about it historically in other countries, that they didn’t take the people seriously. Who does not think that this guy is not going to do exactly what he says he’s gonna do? He’s done it already.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“And then what? We’re gonna sit around and say what, I told you so? It’s gonna happen. If he gets elected, it’s gonna change this country—for everybody. They might think it’s gonna make their life better or they just wanna [fuck] with the rest of the country,” he went on about Trump’s supporters.
The actor then referenced his past comments about wanting to punch Trump in the face. “When I said I wanted to punch him in the face, it’s because of what he said to a bystander at one of his rallies, [that] he wants to punch them in the face,” he explained. “You don’t talk that way to people. What kind of person does that?”
“I see what a hateful, mean-spirited, awful thing he is. He’s vicious,” De Niro added, before revealing what he thinks would be a more truthful campaign slogan for Trump.
“It’s almost like he wants to do the worst that he could possibly do to show this country—to [fuck] with us,” so “his slogan should be [fuck] America—I want to [fuck America],” he said, to heavy applause from the audience.
The audio for that portion of his remarks was cut completely during the live broadcast, but his lips were easy enough to read. On Tuesday afternoon, a clip with only the f-bombs cut from his comments was uploaded to The View’s YouTube page.
“He’s not even conceding it now,” De Niro continued, referencing Trump’s refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 election. “Imagine if he actually did win the election. It’s over—we’re gonna have such civil strife.”
