Robert De Niro Wants To Punch Donald Trump

In an incendiary video released Friday, award-winning actor Robert De Niro went off on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The clip was originally recorded as part of the #VoteYourFuture campaign, but was excluded from the final program because producers found it too partisan.

“I mean, he’s so blatantly stupid,” De Niro says in the video. “He’s a punk. He’s a dog. He’s a pig, he’s a con. He’s a mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about … He’s an idiot. Colin Powell said it best: He’s a national disaster. He’s an embarrassment to this country.”

“He talks about wanting to punch people in the face,” De Niro says. “Well, I’d like to punch him in the face.”

The #VoteYourFuture campaign, intended to be a bipartisan voter registration drive, includes videos from a number of celebrities including Samuel L. Jackson, Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, and Edward Norton.

“No matter the issue, the platform or the candidate you support — the most impactful way to shape the future of our country is to vote,” the #VoteYourFuture website says. “We started this project to share what motivates us to get involved.”

Other clips on the website feature actors speaking more neutrally and generally about voting to express political sentiment.

In one video, award-winning actress Anne Hathaway said the following.

“If you’re pissed off, you gotta vote. And if you’re disillusioned, you gotta vote. You have to suck it up and do it. That’s what it means to be an American. That’s what it means to live in a democracy, you don’t want to just have to receive other people’s choices for you. Vote. The election is here. Finally.”

In another, Mexican journalist Leon Krauze said the following.

“I care about fairness and justice for immigrants, because we are Americans too, we belong in this country, we love it just as much as you do. It pains me to see America as a house divided when it should be the opposite – it should be a house united.”

“If you agree with me, vote,” he added. “If you disagree with me, vote.”

Although the campaign chose not to use De Niro’s clip, Fox News host Megyn Kelly aired the footage on her show The Kelly File on Friday after claiming it exclusively received the video.

This is not the first time that De Niro has been open about his dislike for Trump. In August, the actor said Trump resembled Travis Bickle, a mentally ill character De Niro played in the film Taxi Driver in 1976.

“One of the things to me was just the irony at the end, [Bickle] is back driving a cab, celebrated, which is kind of relevant in some way today too,” De Niro said at the Sarajevo Film Festival. “I don’t know, it’s crazy that people like Donald Trump. He shouldn’t even be where he is, so God help us.”

De Niro added, “What he’s been saying is really totally crazy, ridiculous. But I think now they are really starting to push back, the media… finally they are starting to say: Come on Donald, this is ridiculous, this is nuts, this is insane.”

Although the clip that #VoteYourFuture took was likely recorded several weeks ago, the timing of the release coincides well with recent videos released of Trump earlier this week using vulgar, misogynistic language and discussing sexually assaulting women.

“What I care about is the direction of this country, and what I’m very, very worried about is that it might go in the wrong direction with someone like Donald Trump,” De Niro says at the end of his clip. “If you care about your future, vote for it.”

[Featured Image By Pool/Getty Images]