Robert De Niro got the biggest standing ovation at the Tony Awards on Sunday, and it was with two words: “Fuck Trump.”
Taking the podium to introduce special award recipient Bruce Springsteen, the acting legend said, “I’m going to say one thing, fuck Trump.” As the crowd rose to their feet, De Niro shook his fists in the air and said: “It’s no longer, ‘Down with Trump,’ it’s ‘Fuck Trump.'”
The expletives were bleeped by CBS censors. De Niro settled down a bit for the rest of his remarks but stayed political: “Bruce, you can rock the house like nobody else and even more importantly in these perilous times, you rock the vote, always fighting for, in your own words, truth, transparency and integrity in government,” he said. “Boy, do we need that now.”
Here’s video of DeNiro swearing at Trump on #TonyAwards
Australian feed didnt censor it. pic.twitter.com/KZNrT8UIyH— Rhett Bartlett (@dialmformovies) June 11, 2018
A night’s sleep didn’t mellow De Niro too much. Speaking at an event in Toronto this morning, he doubled down on his criticism (a bit more politely), apologizing to the Canadian people for Trump’s attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “And I just want to make a note of apology for the idiotic behavior of my president,” said De Niro at an event to open a new business development. “It’s a disgrace, and I apologize to Justin Trudeau and the other people at the G7. It’s disgusting.”
Even for him, President Trump had an insane weekend: He arrived late to the G7 summit, said Russia should be readmitted to the G7, alienated all of America’s Western democratic allies, departed early, then picked a fight with Canada.
In response to Trump levying tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, Trudeau said that Canada “will not be pushed around” and announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump called Trudeau “disgusting” and “weak.” That led White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow to call Trudeau’s comments “a betrayal.” Then Trump trade official Pete Navarro said there was a “special place in hell” for foreign leaders like Trudeau who try to cross Trump — the strongest words issued by a Trump administration official against a world leader, including the despots Putin and Kim Jong Un.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland said the country “does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations with other countries.”
