De Niro remarks outside Trump courthouse weren’t political: Senate Democrat

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) chalks up Hollywood star Robert De Niro’s appearance outside a Manhattan courtroom where former President Trump faces criminal charges this week to the media frenzy surrounding Trump’s hush money trial.

“I suspect Robert De Niro, who’s a New Yorker, went to the trial, in part because there’s so much press there,” Coons said during a Wednesday morning appearance on CNN. “If you look at the image you’ve got up on the TV right now, there are more microphones there than there are in the entire island nation of Taiwan. So I suspect he’s there because you’re there.”

Academy Award-winning actor De Niro, 80, spoke to reporters in front of the courthouse as the trial went into closing arguments Tuesday following a Memorial Day holiday break.

“We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,” De Niro said. “I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world.”

De Niro and others who joined him, including police officers who were injured as Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, didn’t get into the minutiae of Trump’s hush money trial, which has featured lurid details about the former president’s alleged sexual encounter with porn actor Stormy Daniels. Daniels took the witness stand three weeks ago.

“I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,” De Niro told reporters Tuesday. “If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”

Trump posted a response to De Niro’s appearance on social media, calling the octogenarian Oscar-winner “pathetic and sad.”

“I never knew how small, both mentally and physically, Wacko Former Actor Robert De Niro was,” Trump wrote on Truth Social just after midnight EDT Wednesday. “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. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio!!!”

Trump’s supporters tried to shout down the “Taxi Driver” actor with chants proclaiming their support for the former president’s MAGA movement.

“He got MAGA’d,” Trump said outside the courtroom Wednesday.

The jury is now in deliberations to decide whether Trump should be convicted on charges related to allegedly falsifying business documents during the 2016 presidential campaign to cover a decade-old sexual encounter with Daniels. Daniels, 45, testified that she had sex with Trump while attending a golf tournament near Lake Tahoe in 2006.