Robert De Niro Compares Role In ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ To ‘Stupid’ Donald Trump

While speaking at a press conference at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Robert De Niro compared his character, the cattleman and convicted murderer William Hale, in Martin Scorsese‘s upcoming true crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, to former President Donald Trump.

When speaking of his character, De Niro explained that he does not “understand a lot about him,” before further elaborating that “But people do things. He has to be charming, he has to win people over. He has to do things to get them… I think part of, with him, is sincere. It’s just the other part where he’s betraying [the Osage community].”

“There’s a feeling of entitlement. It’s almost, I guess you could say we became a lot more aware of it after George Floyd, with systemic racism. And so that’s what it is. And lo and behold, what happened there that we never knew of while we were there was the Black Wall Street massacre while we were shooting,” the Academy Award-winning actor explained.

De Niro, who has long been a vocal critic of Trump, went on to compare his character’s actions to “the banality of evil” and something “we have to watch out for” before emphasizing that it is something we are still experiencing today with public figures like Trump. “We all know who I’m going to talk about, but I won’t say the name. Because that guy is stupid. Imagine if you’re smart. Even Hale was smart in many ways. And so, it’s something that is systemic, and that’s the scary part about it.”

Lily Gladstone, who portrays the Osage tribe member Mollie Burkhart, added that despite all of Hale’s injustices and crimes, there were still some Osage community members who attended his funeral and believed Hale to be a friend and innocent of the crimes he was charged with.

De Niro took this moment to draw direct comparisons between Hale and the former president. “I mean look with Trump,” he added. “I hate to say it… but we see what that is. And there are people who think that he could do a good job. Imagine that. How insane that is. That’s all I’ll say.”

Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on the true crime book of the same name by journalist David Grann, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday and is set to release in theatres on October 20. The star-studded movie, which features actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brenden Fraser, will later be available to stream on Apple TV+ on a later date.