--- title: Robert De Niro: Trump Government Has 'Hostility Towards Art' description: Robert De Niro slammed President Trump's government in a damning speech as he accepted the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award. canonical: https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-09T17:54:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:28.408Z og:title: Robert De Niro Criticizes Trump's 'Hostility Towards Art' og:description: The Goodfellas star turned political as he accepted the Chaplin Award og:url: https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e512e9891f39090/6988cc95a988cacb866bc24a/gettyimages-680518204.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3791 og:image:height: 2132 og:image:alt: 44th Chaplin Award Gala - Backstage og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Robert De Niro Criticizes Trump's 'Hostility Towards Art' twitter:description: The Goodfellas star turned political as he accepted the Chaplin Award twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e512e9891f39090/6988cc95a988cacb866bc24a/gettyimages-680518204.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Robert De Niro Criticizes Trump Administration's 'Hostility Towards Art' in Lifetime Award Speech > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson May 9, 2017 5:54 PM UTC  Actress Meryl Streep and Honoree Robert De Niro backstage during the 44th Chaplin Award Gala at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on May 8, 2017 in New York City. Actress Meryl Streep and Honoree Robert De Niro backstage during the 44th Chaplin Award Gala at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on May 8, 2017 in New York City. Mike Coppola—Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson May 9, 2017 5:54 PM UTC [Robert De Niro](http://time.com/4757375/robert-de-niro-snapchat/) slammed [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4747185/donald-trump-call-space-station-astronauts/)‘s government in a fiery speech Monday evening as he accepted the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 44th Chaplin Award, a lifetime achievement honor that has previously been bestowed on Audrey Hepburn, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep. After thanking the film society for his award, joking that the organization waited until the release of _Dirty Grandpa_ to give it to him, the _Goodfellas_ star turned political, according to an [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://ew.com/movies/2017/05/09/robert-de-niro-chaplin-award-speech-trump/) transcript. Criticizing Trump’s administration’s “hostility towards art,” the 73-year-old actor described cuts to “life-saving and life-enhancing programs” such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as “draconian.” “For their own divisive political purposes, the administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programs goes to rich, liberal elites. This is what they now call an alternative fact,” he continued, adding: “I call it what it is: Bullshit.” De Niro then spoke directly to the audience at the David H. Koch Theater in New York City, telling them that by being there they were “supporting arts for everyone.” He added: “You’re supporting the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the great body of work of Marty Scorsese and Barry Levinson, the dumb-ss comedies of Robert De Niro \[and\] the overrated performances of Meryl Streep,” the latter referring to the President’s [post–Golden Globes tweet](http://time.com/4628999/golden-globes-2017-trump-internet-reactions/) about the actress. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/"},"headline":"Robert De Niro Criticizes Trump Administration's 'Hostility Towards Art' in Lifetime Award Speech","datePublished":"2017-05-09T17:54:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:28.408Z","description":"The Goodfellas star turned political as he accepted the Chaplin Award","url":"https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","onetime","president trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e512e9891f39090/6988cc95a988cacb866bc24a/gettyimages-680518204.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e512e9891f39090/6988cc95a988cacb866bc24a/gettyimages-680518204.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"44th Chaplin Award Gala - Backstage","caption":"44th Chaplin Award Gala - Backstage","creditText":"Mike Coppola—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4772520/robert-de-niro-on-trump-lifetime-award-speech/","name":"Robert De Niro Criticizes Trump Administration's 'Hostility Towards Art' in Lifetime Award Speech"}}]}] ```