Robert De Niro blasted President Donald Trump on Monday during in his acceptance speech after being given the Film Society of Lincoln Centre’s 44th annual Chaplin Award. The 73-year-old actor took aim at the former Apprentice star for his policies regarding the arts.
“We make movies to entertain audiences,” he said. “Audiences vote by seeing them, critics vote by writing about them, and then posterity takes it times to decide if they’re art – or not.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
De Niro continued by saying: “I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because of our government’s hostility towards art. The budget proposal, among its other draconian cuts to life-saving and life-enhancing programs, eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For their own divisive political purposes, the administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programs goes to rich liberal elites. This is what they now call an ‘alternative fact,’ but I call it bullsh*t.”
Up Next: ‘Real Time’ Host Bill Maher Slammed For Offensive Joke About Ivanka Trump
De Niro then referenced the President’s attack on Meryl Streep when thanking everyone for attending the event.
“By being here tonight, you are supporting arts for everyone. You’re supporting the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the great body of work of Marty Scorsese and Barry Levinson, the dumb-a** comedies of Robert De Niro, the ‘overrated performances of Meryl Streep,’ and your town taste and needs.”
This isn’t the first time that the Raging Bull star has spoken out against Donald Trump. In the past, De Niro said he wanted to “punch” the President in the face.
“I said that because he said that about somebody, that he would like to punch them in the face. How dare he say that to the crowd?” De Niro said. “How dare he say the things he does? Of course I want to punch him in the face.”
More: Amanda Knox Speaks Out Against Donald Trump, Continues Defending Her Opposition
While De Niro wants to try and put Donald Trump in his place, he did say that he didn’t actually want to physically hit him.
“It was only a symbolic thing, anyway. It wasn’t like I was going to go find him and punch him in the face,” the actor confessed. “But he’s got to hear it. He’s got to hear that, you know, that’s how he makes people feel. It’s not good to feel that way. It’s not good to start that stuff up, but at the same time sometimes when people are bullies like that, that’s what you have to do to shut them up. Bully them back.”
[H/T Independent, Waverly Films]