Robert De Niro says he sees lots of similarities between Donald Trump and his legendary character in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle. De Niro was talking at an event in Sarajevo to present a digital version of the classic film to mark its 40th anniversary, and when the moderator asked him about Bickle, it seems Trump was the first thing that jumped into the actor’s head. “One of the things to me was just the irony at the end, he (Bickle) is back driving a cab, celebrated, which is kind of relevant in some way today too,” De Niro said.
De Niro then went on to call Trump ridiculous. “What he has been saying is totally crazy, ridiculous, stuff that shouldn’t be even … he is totally nuts,” De Niro said. “People like Donald Trump who shouldn’t be where he is so … God help us,” he added, and the crowd went wild with applause. The actor did utter a few hopeful words though, saying that the mainstream attitudes toward Trump appear to be changing. “But I think now they are really starting to push back, the media … finally they are starting to say: Come on Donald, this is ridiculous, this is nuts, this is insane,” De Niro said.
This was not the first time De Niro criticized Trump. In May, for example, De Niro talked about Trump at the GLAAD Media Awards. “You think you’ve got it bad, [LGBT] community? I don’t think you know what it’s like to be really discriminated against,” De Niro said. “I recently turned on the television news and saw this odd guy with little hands, and he was, like, raving. Turns out the ones being discriminated against are straight, middle-aged white men.”
It’s hardly a new phenomenon either. Back in 2011, De Niro harshly criticized Trump without actually naming him at a time when the real estate mogul was obsessed with President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. “I won’t mention names, but certain people in the news the last couple weeks, just, what are they doing? It’s crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.” Trump did not stay quiet and criticized De Niro, saying he was “not the brightest bulb on the planet.”
