Robert De Niro has boiled his message to President Donald Trump and the people he calls thugs down to three blunt words.
The actor, 83, delivers them in a video for Hands Off Our Vote, a group campaigning to protect voting rights, that was circulating online by Oct. 22, 2026. The two-time Oscar winner, who played Vito Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” tells Americans to cast their ballots before Election Day in the midterms on Nov. 3.
“Voting should be easy. You get to decide. That’s your right, that’s your superpower, but there’s a catch. There are some powerful people who want to take away that power,” De Niro said in the video.
“This is Robert De Niro, and I’ve got a message for them,” he said. “No **** way!”
He then spelled out the choice he sees on the November ballot. “If you want to elect politicians to prop up a would-be king who gets us into a disastrous war and corruptly profits from it, you can find them,” he said. “Or, if you prefer candidates who won’t cut your healthcare and won’t protect pedophiles, there are great choices there, too.”
Washington Hands California a Purge List
His warning arrives as the Trump administration presses states to strike people it says are noncitizens from their voter rolls. The Justice Department sued California on Oct. 15, asking a federal court to bar state officials from counting mail ballots cast by likely noncitizens until each voter’s citizenship can be determined. On Oct. 13, federal officials had delivered California a list of more than 20,000 people they considered likely noncitizens.
The department had given the state 48 hours to review the list before it sued. A Justice Department letter also warned that officials who knowingly count those ballots “risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.” On Oct. 23, federal prosecutors went further, sending letters to at least 18 California counties ordering them to set aside ballots from voters on the list. A court hearing on the lawsuit is set for Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Election law expert Rick Hasen said in an interview published Oct. 21 that the federal pressure has pushed states and localities toward seeing Washington as an adversary. He pointed to the National Voter Registration Act, which generally requires systematic removals of ineligible voters to be completed at least 90 days before a federal primary or general election. “It’s not the kind of thing that ever has happened, that I’m aware of,” Hasen said.
The Chant He Led in New York
De Niro had already taken the message to a crowd in person. On Oct. 4, at a Hands Off Our Vote event in New York with actor Mark Ruffalo, he led the audience in a profane chant built on the group’s name. Ruffalo has also shared the new video on social media, adding the hashtags #no****ingway and #handsoffour****ingvote.
On its website, the organization accuses the administration of trying to keep people from voting so it can control elections and seize more authoritarian power. It says it refuses to accept that, and that the will of the people will prevail.
The actor is a longtime Trump critic, and the president has hit back repeatedly, calling him “a sick and demented person” and “pathetic and sad.” Earlier in 2026, De Niro described Trump as a danger to the nation’s liberty and safety.
Why He Wants Ballots Cast Early
In the video, De Niro asked anyone “as furious as I am at all these thugs who are messing with our votes” to find out how to help through Hands Off Our Vote. He said supporters are fighting in the courts and demonstrating in the streets.
Then came the step he put in front of every viewer: mail or in person, the timing is theirs to pick. “Vote early,” he said. “And then, no matter what they pull on Election Day, your vote will already be banked.”