Fact Check: Was Robert De Niro booed off the stage for an anti-Trump speech?
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: A claim has been circulating on social media platforms that veteran Hollywood actor Robert De Niro was booed off the stage during an event for a speech criticizing President Donald Trump, triggering comments of mockery and speculation. Let us analyze the origins of the viral claim and fact-check its authenticity.
Claim: Robert De Niro was booed off stage for an anti-Trump speech
According to the viral post that surfaced on Facebook, Robert De Niro was booed off the stage during one of his rants against the president.
The post stated that the actor was speaking to a class of film school graduates in Meredith's Bay, Georgia, when the students all booed until he sat down. The uproar came after he made the statement that "America is in a democratic crisis, and we have to stop the man who wants to be king."
The post further claimed that the headmaster was able to calm the crowd after De Niro sat, but the entire class, except for a few students, "turned their chairs around in protest until the actor left the dais."
Fact Check: The claim originated as a satire
The claim, however, is false, as no evidence suggests that De Niro, a vocal critic of Trump, had to go through this.
A search on Google yielded no credible results from prominent news media outlets about the event, which would not go unreported by mainstream news and entertainment outlets.
Moreover, the claim was posted by a popular Facebook parody account called "America’s Last Line Of Defense," which states in the bio, "Nothing on this page is real." Hence, the post was intended as a satire made for the sake of engagement.
Robert De Niro targets Trump over unreleased Epstein files
Last month, on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, the Oscar-winning actor asked, “What number were you thinking of?” When Colbert answered, De Niro joked, “I thought it would be two and a half million. That’s the number of Epstein files Trump still hasn’t released.”
De Niro has been one of Trump’s most vocal celebrity critics and has regularly spoken out against the president during public appearances. The joke quickly became one of the most discussed moments from the episode.
