Actor Robert De Niro co-founded the Tribeca Festival in 2002 with Jane Rosenthal as a direct response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with the explicit goal of revitalizing lower Manhattan and bringing audiences back together through cinema. On June 3, 2026, at the festival’s opening night at the Beacon Theatre, the Oscar-winning actor invoked that founding mission to deliver a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump — without ever uttering his name.
The 82-year-old actor 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.
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.
From Cannes to Tribeca
The June 3 speech 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.
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 June 3.
The Tribeca jab came shortly before opening night, when 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 during Trump’s second term.
A Familiar Feud Reignited
The remarks came during the festival’s opening-night premiere of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s documentary on Earth, Wind & Fire, after which the band performed live for a sold-out crowd. Jane Rosenthal echoed the festival’s founding spirit on opening night. “I only thought we were doing this once to bring people back to lower Manhattan, and I can’t believe 25 years later we’re still standing here,” she said. Framing his criticism of Trump through that founding mission, the idea that art exists to unite communities rather than divide them.
The June 3 remarks marked the latest chapter in a years-long war of words between the actor and the 47th president. 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 the morning of June 4 — 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.
