Robert De Niro has said that Charlie Chaplin would not be allowed into the US today due to Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

Deadline reports that in a speech made at a gala benefit in his honour at the Lincoln Center in New York, the 73-year-old actor took aim at the Trump administration’s “extreme vetting”, which he feared could prevent “the next Chaplin” from entering the country.

“All of us in film – directors, actors, writers, crews, audiences – owe a debt to Charlie Chaplin, an immigrant who probably wouldn’t pass today’s extreme vetting. I hope we’re not keeping out the next Chaplin,” he said.

British citizen Chaplin first travelled to the US in 1910 and resided in the country for 40 years. However, in 1952 immigration authorities barred the actor from returning to the country after a trip the UK due to his alleged support of communism. He instead settled in Switzerland, though later returned to the US to accept a lifetime achievement award from the Lincoln Center.

In a wide-ranging speech made in acceptance of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin award, De Niro also criticised the Trump administration’s “hostility” towards the arts, arguing that its proposed termination of agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts had been made for “divisive political purposes”.

“The administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programmes goes to rich liberal elites,” he said. “This is what they now call an ‘alternative fact’, but I call it bullshit.”

“The administration’s mean-spiritedness towards our art and entertainment is an expression of their mean-spirited attitude about people who want that art and entertainment, people who also want and deserve decent wages, a fair tax system, a safe environment, education for their children and healthcare for all,” he added.



De Niro has long been an outspoken critic of Trump. In October last year he said that he’d like to punch the former reality TV star in the face. He later retracted the comments, saying that he’d be unable to punch Trump now that he was president.

During his Lincoln Center speech the actor also referred to Trump’s criticism of actor Meryl Streep while thanking attendees for their support of the Film Society.

“By being here tonight, you are supporting arts for everyone,” he said. “You’re supporting the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the great body of work of Marty Scorsese and Barry Levinson, the dumb-ass comedies of Robert De Niro, the ‘overrated performances of Meryl Streep’ and your own taste and needs.”



De Niro had previously written a letter in support of Streep after her attack on Trump at the Golden Globes, writing that her comments “needed to be said”.