It was almost a formality that Donald Trump would go off on Robert De Niro following the two-time Oscar winner’s fiery Tuesday morning press conference outside the Manhattan courthouse where the ex-president’s hush money criminal trial is wrapping up.
Trump’s late-night social media rant about De Niro, however, suggests the media-obsessed former president might be conflating the Raging Bull star with another Academy Award-winning icon.
“I never knew how small, both mentally and physically, Wacko Former Actor Robert De Niro was,” Trump bellowed on Truth Social about the thespian who was just nominated this year for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
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“Today, De Niro, who suffers from an incurable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, commonly known in the medical community as TDS, was met, outside the Courthouse, with a force far greater than the Radical Left - MAGA,” the ex-president added. “Robert, whose movies, artistry, and brand have gone WAY DOWN IN VALUE since he entered the political arena at the request of Crooked Joe Biden, looked so pathetic and sad out there.”
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee then curiously finished his tirade with the following line: “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio!!!”
Trump is quoting lyrics from “Mrs. Robinson,” the Grammy-winning Simon & Garfunkel tune from the 1967 film The Graduate. That classic movie helped launch Dustin Hoffman’s career as he starred as an aimless college graduate who is seduced by an older woman but then falls in love with her daughter.
To be fair to the ex-president, who is an admitted TV junkie, both De Niro and Hoffman have shared the screen together on more than a few occasions, including in the Fockers series of films and the political satire Wag the Dog.
This isn’t the first time that Trump has seemingly confused two prominent celebrities. While launching a typically unhinged attack on Jimmy Kimmel, another frequent critic of his, Trump blamed the late-night host for Al Pacino’s bizarre announcement of the Best Picture Winner at this year’s Oscar ceremony.
De Niro, who has repeatedly raged against Trump over the years, was tapped by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign to speak outside Trump’s trial on Tuesday, alongside several police officers who were present during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The chaotic presser, which saw the Goodfellas star warning that Trump could “destroy the world” if elected, ended with De Niro getting into a shouting match with MAGA hecklers.
Meanwhile, according to Fox News, the press conference was tantamount to “tampering with the jury” and could trigger a lawsuit by the ex-president because it “is against the law and against the rights of a defendant.”
