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Robert De Niro was born in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, on August 17, 1943. His mother was a painter. His father was an abstract expressionist. He grew up on the streets of Little Italy and the West Village, neighborhoods that have been synonymous with New York City for longer than the United States has had a Constitution.
The President of the United States wants to put him on a boat.
Not metaphorically. Not as rhetorical flourish. Donald Trump, the 47th president, posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that De Niro “should actually get on a boat” and be deported alongside two sitting members of Congress, Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, whose crimes against the republic apparently include shouting at him during his State of the Union address.
De Niro’s offense was giving a speech.
What Actually Happened
On Tuesday night, while Trump delivered a record-long State of the Union to Congress, an alternative event called “State of the Swamp” was underway at the National Press Club, roughly a mile from the Capitol. Organized by Defiance.org, the Portland Frog Brigade and Courier, the sold-out gathering featured a roster that included actor Mark Ruffalo, former CNN anchor Jim Acosta, former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, Stacey Abrams, George Conway and dozens of other political and media figures.
De Niro headlined. The 82-year-old Oscar winner took the stage around 11 p.m. and delivered a roughly seven-minute address that was, by any honest measure, the speech of a citizen exercising his constitutional right to criticize his government.
He called the current political climate a betrayal. He described Trump as “failing, flailing and desperate.” He warned that the president would attempt to suppress the vote in the upcoming midterms. He urged Americans to participate in the next No Kings Day protest on March 28. He asked the crowd a question that landed like a brick: “Can you love a country that pardons violent criminals and protects pedophiles?”
He also referenced the ACLU letter he signed five months ago supporting Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host was forced off the air, calling it a defense of free speech that he considered fundamental to American life.
None of this is illegal. All of it is protected by the First Amendment. Every word.
The Presidential Response
Trump’s Truth Social post the following day was remarkable even by his standards.
He began by attacking Omar and Tlaib, who had heckled him during the State of the Union, shouting that he had “killed Americans,” a reference to two U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis last month. Trump described the two congresswomen as having “the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized.”
He then said they should be “sent back from where they came.” Tlaib was born in Detroit. Omar was born in Somalia and has been a U.S. citizen for decades.
Then he turned to De Niro, calling him “Trump Deranged,” claiming the actor has “an extremely Low IQ” and asserting that some of what De Niro said was “seriously CRIMINAL.” He compared him unfavorably to Rosie O’Donnell, whom Trump previously threatened to strip of citizenship despite a Supreme Court ruling that makes denaturalization of citizens virtually impossible.
Trump also claimed he watched De Niro “break down in tears last night, much like a child would do.” Reporting from the event indicates this did not happen.
The Part Where We State the Obvious
You cannot deport an American citizen.
This is not a gray area. This is not a matter of legal interpretation. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to all persons born in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled in Afroyim v. Rusk (1967) that Congress has no power to revoke citizenship without the citizen’s voluntary renunciation. Robert De Niro was born in Manhattan. He is as American as the president threatening to remove him.
The same applies to Rashida Tlaib, who was born in Detroit, Michigan. Omar’s citizenship is equally settled law.
Trump knows this. He threatened the same thing against Rosie O’Donnell last year. He has repeatedly suggested deporting citizens who criticize him. The threats are not serious legal proposals. They are something arguably worse: a president conditioning the public to accept the idea that citizenship is contingent on loyalty to him personally.
The Word “Criminal” Is Doing a Lot of Work
Pay attention to Trump’s claim that what De Niro said was “seriously CRIMINAL.”
What did De Niro say? He called Trump failing. He called him desperate. He said Americans should resist. He encouraged people to vote. He questioned whether the country is living up to its values. He used profanity on a podcast.
None of this is criminal. Not under federal law. Not under state law. Not under any definition of criminal speech recognized by any court in the history of the republic. Political criticism of the president is the foundational use case of the First Amendment. It is quite literally the reason that amendment exists.
But when a president with a Department of Justice, an FBI, an IRS and a demonstrated willingness to use federal agencies against perceived enemies calls someone’s speech “seriously CRIMINAL” in all caps, the legal accuracy is beside the point. The message is clear: criticize me and I will frame you as a lawbreaker.
This is not how democracies work. This is how something else works.
The Pattern That Nobody Should Ignore
De Niro is not the first. He won’t be the last.
Jimmy Kimmel was pressured off the air. Colbert’s Late Show was canceled after Paramount took over CBS. A 60 Minutes segment was shelved. Rosie O’Donnell was threatened with citizenship revocation and is currently in Ireland reportedly navigating how to return. At Tuesday’s State of the Union, the Department of Homeland Security publicly identified an immigrant guest of a Democratic congressman on social media, calling him “an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation.” The guest, 19-year-old Marcelo Gomes da Silva, was escorted out of the gallery by the congressman’s chief of staff, who feared for his safety in a room with heavy law enforcement presence.
This is the environment in which a president calls an 82-year-old actor’s political speech “criminal” and suggests putting him on a boat.
According to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll, 39 percent of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the presidency. That means the president of the United States is threatening to deport critics while holding the approval of barely more than a third of the country. The threats are not coming from a position of democratic strength. They are coming from a position of insecurity dressed up as authority.
De Niro Said One Thing That Matters More Than Everything Else
Toward the end of his speech at the National Press Club, De Niro told the crowd something that cuts through all the noise:
“He will never leave. We have to make him leave.”
De Niro was talking about the midterms. He was talking about voting. He was talking about the democratic process that the First Amendment was designed to protect and that political speech was designed to facilitate.
Trump heard a threat. He heard criminality. He heard something that warranted deportation from a country where the speaker was born and has lived for 82 years.
That gap between what was said and what was heard tells you everything about where this presidency is headed.
The Man From Greenwich Village Is Not Getting On a Boat
De Niro has been a public critic of Trump for over a decade. He called Trump a “blatant racist” during the 2020 campaign. He stood outside a Manhattan courthouse during the hush money trial. He has never modulated, never hedged, never calculated the personal cost of saying what he believes about the most powerful person in the country.
You can agree with De Niro or think he’s a Hollywood blowhard who should stick to acting. That is your right as an American citizen. What is not debatable is that a president suggesting the deportation of citizens who criticize him is an act of authoritarian rhetoric that erodes the norms holding this entire experiment together.
De Niro ended his speech by urging Americans to take to the streets on March 28 for the next No Kings Day. “If you want our leaders to be accountable, if you’re devoted to the Constitution and the rule of law, if you want the United States of America to be worthy of your love, be ready to take to the streets together and we will take our country back.”
The president’s response was to suggest putting him on a boat.
One of those two men sounds like he loves this country. The other one sounds like he thinks he owns it.