Leonardo DiCaprio introduced Robert De Niro to a Cannes Film Festival audience as someone he’s always looked up to, while honoring the Academy Award winning star with an honorary Palme d’Or.
De Niro used the opportunity to assure his French audience the U.S. wouldn’t succumb to its “philistine” president, whom he has lambasted many times in the past.
“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted,” De Niro said. “That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic.”
De Niro was being honored nearly 50 years after his 1976 film “Taxi Driver” won the Palme d’Or for its depiction of a deranged New York City cabbie plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate.
On Tuesday, De Niro took aim at President Trump’s decision to personally chair the Kennedy Center, where he’s tapped Fox News hosts and political loyalists to lead what has been one of the nation’s most respected cultural institutions.
“America’s philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions,” De Niro opined.
He further warned that Trump plans to cut funding to arts and education, while threatening to put a tariff on foreign films.
“Let that sink in,” De Niro said. “You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it.”
According to De Niro, 81, the president’s views on the arts represents a threat both at home and abroad. He told fellow filmmakers they’re being targeted for representing a “threat to autocrats and fascists” and encouraged peaceful but firm resistance to such things.
De Niro has taken numerous swings at Trump in recent years including a 2018 rant where he expressed a desire to “punch him in the face.”
Trump has referred to De Niro as a “whacko” actor whose best days are behind him.
