During his hush-money trial, Donald Trump took advantage of the media’s presence outside the Manhattan courtroom where he would eventually be found guilty of 34 felonies. It allowed him to make his case before the American people with no pushback from pesky attorneys or judges. But then, Robert De Niro invaded Trump’s new territory to offer Americans a counter-argument. “We’d forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators. With Trump, we have a second chance,” De Niro said, as noted by CNN. He also deemed Trump a “tyrant” and a coward.
Unsurprisingly, the criminal defendant was apoplectic. On Truth Social, Trump diagnosed De Niro with “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and wrote, “Robert, whose movies, artistry, and brand have gone WAY DOWN IN VALUE since he entered the political arena at the request of Crooked Joe Biden, looked so pathetic and sad out there” (via the Daily Beast). Trump ended his rant on an odd note when he quoted a lyric from the Simon & Garfunkel earworm “Mrs. Robinson,” writing, “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio!!!” The song is famously featured in the movie “The Graduate,” which stars Dustin Hoffman. The Daily Beast suggested that Trump had gotten De Niro and Hoffman confused, which made his attempt at a clever musical insult fall flat. Worse yet, De Niro got to relish his rival’s guilty verdict. “I think justice was served,” the actor told Variety.
