Robert De Niro Angry That His Anti-Trump Gotham Awards Speech Was Edited Without His Knowledge

The veteran Robert De Niro lamented when his Gotham Awards speech was censored without informing him. Apparently, the Killers of the Moon actor was left confused when he took the stage to read his speech and found a few lines missing. He later figured they had been consciously removed because it was anti-Trump. 

The 80-year-old complained in front of an audience in New York about how the line criticizing Donald Trump had been removed. De Niro came to the stage as part of the Gotham historical icon to read around the remarks on the Martin Scorsese film, realizing the first few lines were not there. 

Before delivering his speech, De Niro informed the audience his critical political remarks about the former president had been removed from the teleprompter. However, the actor clarified, "I just want to say one thing: The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out," adding, "I didn't know about it. And I want to read it. Thank you," per PEOPLE.

The Goodfellas actor went on to read the original speech from his phone, "History isn't history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness." He continued, In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills which can be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn't immune to this festering disease."

"The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." Further in the speech, De Niro criticized the Republican front-runner and highlighted his "lies." 

"Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan's arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he's keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution," blasted De Niro. "But with all his lies, he can't hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect – for example, by using 'Pocahontas' as a slur." 

After concluding his explosive speech, the actor slammed the backers of his latest release, Killers of the Moon, Apple company for censoring his speech without informing him or any prior notice. "I don't feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually," he called out. 

De Niro has been a vocal critic of Trump. Previously, in a pre-election video from 2016, the Heat actor said, "[Donald Trump] is blatantly stupid … he's a punk, he's a dog, he's a pig, he's a con, a bullshit artist. A mutt who doesn't know what he's talking about." He continued, "He talks how he wants to punch people in the face. Well, I'd like to punch him in the face," per The Guardian. 

Voight attacked De Niro, saying, "I am so ashamed of my fellow actor Bobby DeNiro's rant against Donald Trump. What foul words he used against a presidential nominee." The Midnight Cowboy actor has been a Republican party supporter.