Robert De Niro used the opening night of the Tribeca Festival on June 4, 2026, to deliver a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump — without ever uttering his name. The Oscar-winning actor, who co-founded the New York festival in 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, told the crowd exactly who he had in mind as he condemned the leadership tearing the country apart.
Contrasting the festival’s mission to “pull people together” with the “monstrous leaders” who, in his words, “are trying to force us apart for their own immoral, cruel and corrupt purposes,” De Niro paused before adding the line that landed with the audience: “You know who I’m talking about.” No name was necessary.
A Familiar Feud Reignited
The Wednesday night remarks marked the latest chapter in a years-long war of words between the 82-year-old actor and the 47th president. De Niro has variously branded Trump an “existential threat to our freedoms and security,” a “philistine president,” a “monster,” a “tyrant,” a “jerk” and a “clown.” For his part, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at De Niro on social media with increasingly heated rhetoric.
The Tribeca jab came just days after De Niro squeezed in another barb at the president during one of the final segments of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The actor has shown no signs of softening his stance as Trump’s second term continues to upend the cultural landscape.
A Long History of Political Broadsides
De Niro’s public clashes with Trump stretch back nearly a decade. One month before the 2016 election, the “Raging Bull” star declared he would like to punch Trump in the face. In January 2017, accepting an honor at the National Board of Review’s gala, he called the new president a “jerk” and a “clown.” That May, while promoting “The Wizard of Lies,” he escalated again, declaring that “America is being run by a mad man” and comparing the president to “Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken.”
At a Tribeca Film Festival lunch event for journalists on April 18, 2018, De Niro delivered one of his most memorable lines, telling the room of reporters that their work was difficult enough “without being attacked by our low-life-in-chief.” He praised the press as “our saviors” and urged cultural institutions to “show that we’re open to ideas different than ours” — a refrain that echoed through his remarks on Wednesday.
From Cannes to Tribeca
The Tribeca speech also recalled De Niro’s most internationally watched political broadside, delivered on May 13, 2025, when he received an honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. Accepting the award from Leonardo DiCaprio inside the Grand Lumière theater, De Niro labeled Trump “America’s Philistine president” and slammed his decision to appoint himself head of the Kennedy Center and to impose a 100 percent tariff on films produced outside the United States.
“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted,” he told the Cannes audience. “That affects all of us here, because art is the crucible that brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That’s why art is a threat. That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists.”
The Cannes speech ended with a rallying cry to “organize, to protest, and when there are elections, vote.” That ceremony, hosted by French actor Laurent Lafitte, also paid tribute to politically engaged screen icons including James Stewart, Jean Gabin, Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Gere, Isabelle Adjani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Rock Hudson and Adèle Haenel, and featured an appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Festival’s Founding Mission
De Niro’s pivot back to Tribeca on Wednesday carried particular resonance. He co-founded the festival in 2002 alongside Jane Rosenthal as a direct response to the September 11 attacks, with the explicit goal of revitalizing lower Manhattan and bringing audiences back together through cinema. Framing his criticism of Trump through that founding mission — the idea that art exists to unite communities rather than divide them — gave the unnamed jab a sharper edge than a direct insult might have carried.
The festival, now in its 25th year, runs in venues across New York City. For De Niro, the message on opening night was that the cultural institutions he helped build remain a counterweight to what he sees as an administration hostile to the arts. And while he declined to name the man in the White House, the audience inside the theater — and the millions who would see the clip circulate online by Thursday morning — understood exactly who was on the receiving end.
Whether Trump responds publicly remains to be seen. History suggests he will. The two men have been trading verbal blows since before Trump’s first term, and De Niro, now well into his ninth decade, has shown no interest in stepping away from the fight.