On Wednesday morning, February 25, 2026, President Donald Trump launched an intense Truth Social rant aimed at actor Robert De Niro and Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, saying all three should be deported after they delivered dueling speeches Tuesday night that openly challenged his State of the Union address.
The 82-year-old Oscar-winning actor led a counter-event titled “State of the Swamp” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening—speaking as Trump delivered his address to Congress less than two miles away at the U.S. Capitol. De Niro gave a passionate speech urging Americans to push back against the administration.
The president quickly retaliated. In his Wednesday morning post, Trump claimed that De Niro and the two lawmakers should “actually get on a boat” and leave the United States together.
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump singled out De Niro’s emotional remarks, unfavorably comparing him to longtime critic Rosie O’Donnell, who relocated to Ireland in January 2025 to avoid the spotlight surrounding Trump’s second term. O’Donnell recently told SiriusXM’s Chris Cuomo that she secretly traveled back to the U.S. to see family but described the experience as “scary.”
Trump also attacked Omar and Tlaib, who interrupted his State of the Union speech Tuesday night by shouting “You have killed Americans” after he addressed Minnesota’s Somali community. Their outcry referred to two U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January—Renée Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24.
The president characterized the two lawmakers as having “the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people” and suggested they should be “sent back from where they came—as fast as possible.” Omar is a Somalia-born American citizen, and Tlaib was born in Detroit, making Trump’s deportation remarks highly questionable legally.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung criticized De Niro further in a statement to USA TODAY, calling him a “washed-up has-been who hasn’t been relevant in 30 years” and urging him to seek “immediate treatment for a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
The “State of the Swamp” event was organized by Defiance.org. Additional speakers included “Avengers” actor Mark Ruffalo, who appeared via video, and former CNN anchor Jim Acosta. De Niro also appeared on “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace” podcast on February 23, calling Trump “the enemy of this country” and predicting the president would refuse to leave office at the end of his term.
The tensions stretched beyond the celebrity world. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a 19-year-old invited guest at the State of the Union from Milford, Massachusetts, left the address early after the Department of Homeland Security publicly labeled him “an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation.” Gomes da Silva legally immigrated from Brazil at age six with his parents, though his visa later expired. He was detained by ICE in May while driving to volleyball practice and held for six days in Burlington before being released.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced that a White House staffer named Garrett Wade appears to be managing the “Johnny MAGA” X account, which has nearly 300,000 followers and regularly boosts administration messaging without acknowledging any government affiliation. According to WIRED, Wade works as a rapid response manager for the Trump administration. The account has shared inflammatory posts about the Minneapolis shootings and other contentious issues, raising major concerns about transparency and ethics.
De Niro, who was born in the United States and has been a longtime critic of Trump, told the National Press Club audience Tuesday that he feels “betrayed by my country” under the current administration. His call for Americans to defend democratic values through peaceful protest and voting sparked a full day of political reactions that stretched far beyond the State of the Union itself.