At a Sarajevo screening of Taxi Driver on Friday night, actor Robert De Niro compared Donald Trump to Travis Bickle, the character he played in the 1976 film. His grounds for the comparison were simple: Bickle is clearly mentally unwell and Trump is, in De Niro’s words, “totally nuts.” To be fair to De Niro, when they fly you to a film festival to talk about Taxi Driver, you gotta talk about Taxi Driver. But of all the roles De Niro’s played in his career, Bickle, a working-class Vietnam vet, who, whatever else you say about him, doesn’t lack discipline, has perhaps the least in common with the new face of the Republican Party. Here are five of De Niro’s legendary characters that do a better job of embodying Trumpism—without even getting to the racist, anti-immigrant politician he plays in Machete.
Johnny Boy, Mean Streets
The Republican establishment will no doubt see themselves in Harvey Keitel’s character in Mean Streets, trying, unsuccessfully, to tame Trump’s impulse for pointless self-destruction. But it’s Trump’s business partners who will really shudder in recognition watching De Niro handle his debts the Trump way: paying virtually nothing for no reason but spite and greed. It’s a statistical certainty that at some point in his many bankruptcy filings, Trump has spoken the words, “I borrow money from you because you’re the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without paying back!”
Al Capone, The Untouchables
Anyone who’s flipped through Trump’s The Art of the Deal or watched him pitch Trump University will see something of Trump in Capone’s bluster and half-baked leadership metaphors in The Untouchables. Anyone who actually enrolled in Trump University will recognize the swing of the bat.
Rupert Pupkin, The King of Comedy
There’s another, more sympathetic way to read Trump, best articulated by BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins: as an outsider whose years of painful humiliation and rejection at the hands of the aristocracy drive him to ever-more drastic attempts at revenge and redemption. That sounds an awful lot like Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy, a man utterly adrift in the world of entertainment who helps kidnap a talk show host in one final, desperate ploy for attention. In the clip above, Pupkin addresses Trump’s ideal audience: supportive no matter how bad his jokes are, overwhelmingly white, and above all, frozen in time.
Jake La Motta, Raging Bull
There are parts of De Niro’s Raging Bull performance where Trump might mistake the comparison for a compliment: La Motta punching a black man like he’s at a Trump rally, La Motta claiming victory even when he’s getting trounced. But the part of Raging Bull that really brings the Republican nominee to mind comes long after the boxing is over. Never mind naming his nightclub after himself—check out the undisguised misogyny and contempt for his audience De Niro gives the ex-boxer here. After the election, Trump will probably get to re-enact another great De Niro scene from this film: staring into a mirror pretending someone else is to blame for his failure.
Fearless Leader, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
There are a lot of parallels that could be drawn between Donald Trump and Fearless Leader: leadership style, speaking style, hairstyle. But De Niro’s performance in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle has something far more fundamental in common with the Republican nominee for president: They’re both absolutely terrible.
