OPINION:
Robert De Niro, who used to be an actor of considerable weight but now seems more a deliverer of public jabs at President Donald Trump, tipped his has-been hat once again at the recent Tribeca Film Festival press luncheon, calling out the commander-in-chief as a “lowlife-in-chief” — and that was just his warmup.
Oh, for the days when actors simply acted — when Hollywood’s best and brightest stars loved America to the point where they’d lay aside big paychecks to join the military and fight the patriotic cause.
Now, it seems the loudest anti-Trump mouths in Tinsel Town make the most media waves.
Here’s a sampling of what De Niro swung Trump’s way during his speech-slash-self-centered-rant, courtesy of Deadline reporting: “The country has had a bad year and you, the press, have taken a lot of hits. America is being run by a madman who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it came inside a bucket of his beloved Colonel Sanders Fried Chicken.”
And this: “When [Trump] doesn’t like what he hears, he dismisses it by saying it’s un-American and damning it as ’fake news.’ But we know the truth. All thinking people do.”
And this: “Your job [in the press] is difficult enough without being attacked by our lowlife-in-chief. The press has done an admirable job this past year. We’re looking at journalists as our saviors, in the same way we used to look at our political leaders.”
Could actors please stick to acting and let the political world alone — unless they have something of real value to offer?
That’s not to say only actors with conservative voices and pro-Trump messaging should speak. But it is to say that the leftists among the Hollywood crowd — and there are many — ought to keep quiet unless their anti-Republican, Trump-hating rhetoric comes based on some sort of fact. Railing madly against the president and slinging as many creatively worded anti-Trump ’disses as possible within the time limits of a five-minute speech is neither helpful to the political climate nor sane.
It makes the speaker appear a bit of a loon.
It makes the slinger of mud, in this case De Niro, seem on a desperate quest for relevancy in the public eye.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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