
Robert De Niro isn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind. Why should he be? His reputation as one of the world’s greatest actors is unassailable and, at 82 years old, he’s hardly in danger of suffering long-term career damage for his political beliefs.
As such he’s a regular critic of Donald Trump and his cronies, though has recently amped up the rhetoric. Yesterday he appeared on MSNBC’s The Weekend and was interviewed in connection with the No Kings protests that took place on Oct. 18.
De Niro didn’t hold back, predicting that Trump “is not going to leave the White House” after his term ends, saying that he thinks an attempt at a third term or simply installing himself as a permanent dictator is possible: “He’s not going to want to leave; why should he?”
He went on to dub the Trump administration racist, but reserved his fiercest venom for Trump Deputy of Staff Stephen Miller, who he compared to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels:
Actor Robert De Niro: “He will not want to leave. He’s set it up with his Goebbels of the cabinet — Stephen Miller. He’s a Nazi, yes he is. And he’s Jewish and he should be ashamed of himself.” pic.twitter.com/vW11cSyoWp
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) October 19, 2025
“He’s set it up with his Goebbels of the cabinet — Stephen Miller. He’s a Nazi, yes he is. And he’s Jewish and he should be ashamed of himself.”
Ordinarily calling a politician a Nazi is just hyperbole, but in Miller’s case his combination of ultranationalism, authoritarianism, militarism, anti-liberalism, scapegoating of minorities, cult of leadership, and anti-egalitarianism – fits the Nazi mold to a tee.
“We can’t let up”
So what should Americans do? De Niro said the No Kings protests are a good start, but that we need sustained resistance:
“We can’t let up. Cannot let up on him because he is not going to leave the White House. He does not want to leave the White House. He will not leave the White House. Anybody thinks he, oh, he’ll do this, he’ll do that, it’s just deluding themselves.
…
The Republicans, most of all, because they know, but they’re going along with it. It’s a classic bully situation. We see it, and there’s no other way to face a bully. You have to face him and fight it out and back them off and back him down. That’s the only way this is going to work.”
Credit to De Niro for taking a stand on this, though peaceful protest can only accomplish so much. Even so, by Hollywood standards he’s basically Che Guevara, so we’ll take what we can get.