Robert De Niro Reacts To Donald Trump Verdict: “This Never Should Have Gotten To This Stage”

Robert De Niro — who made a surprise campaign appearance for Joe Biden outside of Donald Trump‘s trial just two days before today’s guilty verdict in the hush money case — reacted to the news by saying “justice was served.”

While promoting his new movie Ezra Thursday in New York City, the actor told Variety how “this never should have gotten to this stage. I don’t want to be talking, but I am so upset by it. I have to say something. This is my country. This guy wants to destroy it. Period. He’s crazy.”

A jury in New York City on Thursday found the former president guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to keep a potential sex scandal from derailing his first presidential campaign. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention.

When asked if he thought this could affect the presidential election, De Niro said, “I think it would.”

The actor went on to admit that he has some fears about his safety, especially since he’s been so vocal about Trump. “You think about that. It makes me more angry, but I have to be afraid to be intimidated. And that’s why I said, you’re not going to intimidate us. People are fed up, they’re going to fight back. That’s not what we’re about in this country.”

On May 28, De Niro stood outside of the Manhattan courthouse and called Trump a “tyrant.” 

“Now he’s promising to use our own military to attack U.S. citizens,” De Niro said at the time. “That’s the tyrant, that is the tyrant he is telling us he will be, and believe me, he means it.”

“When Trump ran in 2016 it was like a joke,” he continued. “This buffoon running for president. No, never could happen. We have 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, and no one is laughing now.”

De Niro stars opposite Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne in Ezra, which premiered at TIFF last year. It follows stand-up comic Max Bernal (Cannavale), who is living with his father (De Niro) while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife (Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son’s future — and because Max is booked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! but without plane fare comped — Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives.