Leftist Hollywood actor Robert De Niro has sneered at billionaire Elon Musk for helping to fund the Republican cause in the midterm election that swamped the GOP.
Deadline reports the Oscar-winning actor joined his fellow Tribeca Festival founder Jane Rosenthal for a screening in New York City Sunday of Musk, Alex Gibney’s documentary that vilifies the world’s richest man.
The outlet reported a roomful of Academy members joined the event at the Crosby Hotel in Manhattan as De Niro launched into his mocking assertions.
“Elon Musk spent about 300 million dollars getting Trump elected in 2024,” De Niro reportedly said as he introduced the film. “And he just spent close to half a billion on Republicans in this past week’s election. How did that turn out for you?” he said to cheers, jeers, sneers and laughter.
Deadline further noted De Niro alluded to more bad news for Musk ahead – his announcement on X that Tesla would end production of its much-vaunted Cybertruck next summer.
“In the fight between Musk’s money and democracy, democracy won. This time. But just like his grotesque Cybertruck, Musk isn’t going anywhere,” De Niro commented, before adding:
It’s a reminder that while we are celebrating the massive electoral repudiation of Trump and Trumpism, we have to be vigilant — and not just vigilant, we have to be ready to take action.
This is an important film, I hope you will be as moved as I was by it and spread the word.
For his part, Oscar winner Gibney told octogenarian De Niro, “Thank you, Bob, for all you have done for all of the resistance.”
Neither party mentioned the film Musk bombed on launching at the box office, as John Nolte of Breitbart News reported.
Nolte detailed, “Alex Gibney’s Musk earned a paltry $307,000 despite debuting on 468 screens after opening last weekend on four screens. That’s a per-screen average of $649.
“By comparison, the Melania Trump documentary, Melania, opened on a whopping 1,778 screens and still earned $4,027 per screen.”
