By Brie Stimson | Fox News




Robert De Niro Tuesday called President Trump a "lunatic" and claimed he doesn't care how many Americans die of the coronavirus.

De Niro, a frequent critic of the president, said it’s “Shakespearean” how members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force avoid contradicting Trump.

“You’ve got a lunatic saying things that people are trying to dance around…it’s appalling,” he told BBC’s Newsnight from his home in New York. “It’s scary because everybody’s sort of just nonplussed and stunned at what this guy is doing.”

“The Irishman” actor praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the crisis, saying he’s “done a great job. He’s done what Trump should have done, but he doesn’t have a clue how to do that.”

Last week, De Niro told Stephen Colbert he could play Cuomo in a potential movie about the coronavirus.

The Oscar winner claimed the president is solely focused on his re-election and “he doesn’t even care how many people die.”

When Newsnight host Emily Maitlis suggested Trump supporters might balk at his assessment, De Niro said, “The people he pretends to care about are the people he has the most disdain for because he could care less about them. They might like to tell themselves that and delude themselves but he doesn’t care about them."

De Niro famously decreed “F--- Trump!” during the 2018 Tony awards. Last year, he compared Trump’s presidency to an “abusive household” and said he’d like to see Trump have a bag full of excrement thrown in his face.

De Niro supports former Vice President Joe Biden for president.