Welcome to the Trump era, where presidents of the United States take time out of their day to squabble with celebrities. Donald Trump has done it before, and now he’s done it again, and there’s not really any indication he’s going to give up his love for squabbling any time soon.
At the recently held Tony Awards, actor Robert De Niro cursed out President Trump while introducing a performance by rock star Bruce Springsteen — who himself has at times been vocal in his opposition to the Trump administration. De Niro is a private citizen, who does not have the responsibilities associated with leading and being the public face of the United States, while Trump, of course, does.
That did not stop Trump, however, from going after the actor in a Twitter rant posted not too long after his supposedly history changing summit in Singapore with the dictatorial leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.
He wrote, in a rant in which he put a “to” where he should have put “too”:
‘Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received to many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be “punch-drunk.” I guess he doesn’t realize the economy is the best it’s ever been with employment being at an all time high, and many companies pouring back into our country. Wake up Punchy!’
Imagine President Barack Obama taking to social media to call a celebrity who happened to disagree with him “Punchy” and a “very Low IQ individual.”
Saying “oh well De Niro lashed out at him first” doesn’t work.
First of all, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. He has other things to be doing, and even in the case of carving out the time necessary to post the tweets above, there’s a certain levelheadedness that you’d hope that a president would maintain. No, Trump, is not the first political figure to fail to display that trait, and he certainly won’t be the last, but that doesn’t lessen the impact.
Even the content of the jabs Trump and De Niro lobbed is different if you look closely. De Niro didn’t dream up a nickname for the president that would have taken him perhaps into obsession territory. He just said “Fuck Trump.” It really doesn’t take that much.
Trump, on the other hand, gravely offended by someone daring to disagree with him, clearly sat around and schemed until he came up with what he felt was no doubt the best way to hit back at De Niro, taking his career into account in his retort.
In reality, of course, he just looks like a moron. Those who are still on board with this kind of behavior via working in his administration deserve some serious side-eye, at best.
To be clear, these tweets aren’t the first time that Trump has lashed out like this and they certainly won’t be the last. De Niro has been playing Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live skits, so who knows, perhaps Trump will lash out at him in particular again over that.
Check out Twitter’s response below.
Featured Image via Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
