'Unprincipled, bigoted, and vengeful': Robert De Niro compares his latest character to Trump

Veteran actor Robert De Niro, "shortly before the actors' strike and long before [ex-President Donald] Trump's appearance at a New York courthouse on charges of fraud," spoke with Observer Magazine commissioning editor Alex Moshakis about his ongoing exasperation with the MAGA 2024 hopeful.

In an interview published by The Guardian on Sunday, October 15, Moshakis writes, "De Niro and I are meant to be discussing his latest picture, Killers of the Flower Moon, which recalls a dark period in 1920s Oklahoma during which members of the Osage Nation were murdered for their oil rights, and in which De Niro plays William Hale, a benign-seeming ranch-owner who is in fact at the root of much of the period's evil." However, "Trump keeps getting in the way."

Moshakis writes:

'I'm going to go into this,' De Niro says. 'The political situation we're in in my country, it is crazy and absurd – we lost control. I see the phenomenon of Trump, the phenomenon of people not standing up to him, people who ought to know better… They're causing great concern in the country and a lot of anxiety. I feel like since he's come on the scene – even after being president – it’s like when an abusive parent rules a household, only it’s not just one household it’s the whole country. We're like, 'What's this guy going to do next? What's he going to aggravate us about?' The actor shrugs. 'Is he just doing this to aggravate people? To make people unhappy? Maybe he is.'

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Moshakis notes, "At a press conference earlier in the day, De Niro had suggested that Hale's kind of immorality – his entitlement and greed, his racism, his disregard for anyone outside his own bloodline, all of it wrapped up in a kindly aspect – is easy to spot in contemporary politics, in what was a not-so-veiled swing at Trump and a broader swipe at members of the Republican party, accessories to the chaos."

The editor continues, "I ask now why Trump has made De Niro, a man so diffident even his close friend and collaborator has described him as taciturn, suddenly so forthcoming."

A "politically frustrated" De Niro replied, "It upsets me so much that somebody like him could get so far in our political system. Many New Yorkers were on to what a fool he is, a joke. But when the country started buying it? I mean, he didn't win by much. He didn't win the popular vote. She won. But look what happened. What's scary is it's such a fragile thing, to swing like that. And the odd thing about Trump is that if he had any brains he could have become president again. But he doesn't care. He did stupid things. He's not somebody who should ever be allowed close to leadership in this country again."

Moshakis writes:

When I mention his allusions to Trump, De Niro says, 'Of course. He allowed more of it to come out' – the racism, the disregard. 'One of the main tasks of being a leader, the responsibility, is to lead. Even when the masses are turning in a certain the direction, you have to show them the right way. And that comes down to personal integrity, what you know is right and what you know to be wrong, what you stand for.' Trump is 'doing whatever he can to be the boss,' he goes on. 'He just wants to be in charge. He has no moral centre.'

In Killers of the Flower Moon, Hale is similarly unprincipled, bigoted, and vengeful. Many if not all of his actions are propelled by avarice. Asked what appealed to him about playing the character, De Niro replies, 'I don't know if he appealed to me. He's… I don't know.' Then he adds, 'The older I get, people do things that I just don’t understand. I have no pretence to know.'

'What sort of things?' I ask.

He gives a brief answer that he boils down to: 'The state of the country.'

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