Entertainment

Robert De Niro responds to Donald Trump’s election loss

The actor has clashed with the president previously.
The actor has clashed with the president previously. The actor has clashed with the president previously.

Robert De Niro has reopened his feud with Donald Trump and said the president has a “screw loose” following his election loss.

Hollywood star De Niro, who has frequently criticised Mr Trump, said he was “relieved” Joe Biden won, adding it was important the president was “held accountable” when he left office.

The 77-year-old Goodfellas star blamed Mr Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic for his defeat.

During an appearance on the MSNBC network, he said: “I think there’s a screw loose there. He just doesn’t get it. If he had done what he should’ve done for the virus, he could’ve won this election. I wouldn’t be happy about it, but he would’ve done something right.”

Comparing Mr Trump to The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, a 1971 comedy about an incompetent gang of crooks, De Niro added: “He didn’t even understand how to do that. It’s like The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Certain people only know how to do things with a felonious intent.

“They can’t just go from A to B to C to D. They have to go to A to B to G to H, whatever. They don’t understand if you do it right, stay straight, do the right thing, that’s all you have to do.

“And he just doesn’t understand that.”

De Niro and Mr Trump have sparred frequently during the president’s time in office.

In May, the two-time Oscar-winner said Mr Trump “doesn’t care” how many people die from coronavirus.

After De Niro, who played boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s 1980 biopic Raging Bull, yelled “f*** Trump” at the Tony Awards in 2018, the president responded on Twitter.

He said: “Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received too many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punch-drunk’.”