Actor Robert DeNiro unloaded on President Donald Trump in a scathing statement during the kickoff of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday.
DeNiro, 74, praised journalists who were attending the annual event, emphasizing the importance of a free press and the challenges and abuse they regularly face from Trump and his embattled administration.
America is being run by a madman. When he doesn't like what he hears, he dismisses it by saying it's un-American and damning and it's 'fake news,' but we know the truth. All thinking people do know the truth.
DeNiro then excoriated Trump, calling him a "lowlife in chief" for his continued attacks on the press.
Your job is difficult enough without being attacked by our lowlife-in-chief, that's the new name I have for him. It was jerkoff-in-chief, now it's lowlife-in-chief.
Turning his attention to the crowd, which was filled with members of numerous press outlets, DeNiro emphasized the importance of their work.
The press has done an admirable job this past year. We're looking at journalists as our saviors in the same way we used to look at our political leaders. It's come to the entertainment and cultural committees to show that we're open to ideas different than ours, that we welcome cultures foreign to us, that we embrace diversity, that we'll continue to support telling their stories, because ultimately they're our stories.
DeNiro previously referred to Trump as "baby-in-chief" and "jerkoff-in-chief" in January at the National Board of Review gala while presenting Meryl Streep with her Best Actress Academy Award for The Post. During the 2016 presidential campaign, DeNiro also said he wanted to punch Trump in the face.
It was fascinating to watch The Post. That story took place nearly 50 years ago, but there are many parallels today, obviously. This f*cking idiot is the president. It's The Emperor's New Clothes: The guy is a f*cking fool.
The Tribeca Film Festival takes place in New York City every year and runs through April 29.
Recently, DeNiro has returned to Saturday Night Live to portray Special Counsel Robert Mueller, staging mock polygraph interrogations with Ben Stiller, who plays Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney who is now the subject of a massive criminal investigation.
The skits were a reference to DeNiro and Stiller's relationship in the hit movie, Meet the Parents.
On Monday, DeNiro penned an open letter to students and teachers who plan on participating in Friday's National School Walkout over gun control. The March For Our Lives movement, which has held protests across the country since February's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was started by student survivors of the attack.
