On Tuesday (24 February), Donald Trump delivered the annual State of the Union address.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the US president gave the longest-ever speech in the event’s history as his address went on for an hour and 47 minutes.
With the country’s gold medal-winning hockey team even making an appearance, Trump spoke about the likes of Iran, tariffs and the economy.
But while Trump’s State of the Union was going on, so was a counter-address; ‘The State of the Swamp’. Attended by the likes of Don Lemon and Mark Ruffalo, Robert De Niro headlined the event.
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According to the event's organisers, Defiance.org, it was ‘focused on defying Donald Trump's abuses of power, including officials who previously advised Trump’.
And, along with comments he made on a podcast released the day before, Hollywood icon De Niro is now facing threats of deportation.
Trump has accused the Goodfellas actor of ‘Trump derangement’.
Born in New York, the 82-year-old has been outspoken for the past decade or so about Trump and criticised him and his MAGA supporters during the episode of MSNBC’s The Best People with Nicole Wallace podcast.
“He’s an idiot. We gotta get rid of him. He’s gonna ruin the country,” De Niro said.
The star went on to add: “I don’t want everybody going around with their MAGA, the American flags, like they’re the only ones. We are Americans too.”
During his emotional speech at the State of the Swamp event, he described the president as ‘failing, flailing and desperate’.
And yesterday, Trump went on a fiery rant as he labelled the Heat actor as ‘demented’ in a Truth Social post.
He proposed deporting Reps Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib who left the Capitol building early on Tuesday after shouting him down during his speech.
Calling them ‘lunatics’, the president went on to write: “They should actually get on a boat with Trump Deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!”
He continued: “When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realised that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States.”
Trump claimed the ‘only difference’ between the actor and comedian is that she is ‘probably somewhat smarter’.
“The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” he added in his post.
What is ‘Trump derangement’?
A term coined by MAGA supporters, 'Trump derangement' is often used to describe critics of Donald Trump.
It appears to be an adaptation of 'Bush derangement syndrome', a phrase dubbed by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer during George W Bush's presidency in 2003.
Writing about 'Trump derangement syndrome' for the Therapy Group of DC, psychologist Brad Brenner, PhD, noted that it 'discredits rather than describes and its very existence shows how political language can blur the line between clinical insight and partisan insult'.
The president himself has regularly used the phrase to describe his political opponents and sparked backlash after claiming filmmaker Rob Reiner's death was linked to 'Trump derangement syndrome'.
Topics: Donald Trump, Robert De Niro, US News
Jess Battison