NEW YORK: An old video of Hollywood actor Robert De Niro swearing at United States President Donald Trump has resurfaced online with the false claim that it was from the recent 97th Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony, held on March 3, 2025 in Los Angeles.
The viral clip, widely shared on social media platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), shows De Niro exclaiming, “I am going to say one thing, f**k Trump!”
The video has been misleadingly captioned as, “Actor De Niro’s first statement before his speech at the Oscars.” However, fact-checking has revealed that the clip is actually from the 2018 Tony Awards.
Origins of the video
According to a Guardian report published on June 11, 2018, De Niro made the remarks during the Tony Awards in New York.
The Tony Awards, formally known as the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, are considered the equivalent of the Oscars for the theatre industry.
During the ceremony, De Niro took to the stage and declared, “It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f**k Trump.”
The statement received a standing ovation from the audience, which included several actors and celebrities.
Although the show was broadcast live, CBS managed to censor the explicit language for television audiences, which were estimated to be around six million, according to The Guardian.
Further verification by Fact-Check BOOM confirms that this video is not from the Oscars 2025, nor is it a recent statement by De Niro.
The resurfacing of this clip with misleading claims appears to be part of a pattern of misinformation surrounding political and celebrity-related events.
De Niro’s criticism against Trump
The 81-year-old De Niro, a two-time Academy Award winner, has been an outspoken critic of Trump for years. In March 2024, he called Trump a “total monster.”
Additionally, in another widely publicised event, De Niro launched a profanity-laced criticism of Trump during a different awards gala. As reported by The New York Times, he stated:
“This f—–g idiot is the president. It’s ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ – the guy is a f—–g fool.”
He further accused the Trump administration of attacking the press, saying:
“Our government today, with the propping [up] of our baby-in-chief – the jerkoff-in-chief, I call him – has put the press under siege, ridiculing it through trying to discredit it through outrageous attacks and lies.”
