Actor Robert De Niro’s Speech at First Amendment Rally (Transcript)

Read the full transcript of Hollywood legend Robert De Niro’s speech at a First Amendment rally in New York City, June 15, 2026.

INTRODUCTION

ROBERT DE NIRO:

Good evening, everyone. And welcome to… To all of you who couldn’t get tickets to the White House cage fight. I’m devoted to our Constitution’s First Amendment. All parts of it, not just the free speech part.

That said, I’m pretty close to being a free speech absolutist. Even speech I don’t like, and there’s plenty of that around. So when I hear something I don’t like, I use my own free speech to respond.

On Free Speech and Trump

Let me give you an example. When I hear Trump say, as he did a few days ago, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. Not even a little bit.” I say, “Shut the f up. Shut the f up.”

On Wednesday Trump said, “I love the inflation.” Now say it with me. Shut the f* up.

Trump said he won the 2020 election. Ready? Shut the f* up. Try this at home. Your young kids will especially enjoy it.

The ACLU Letter and Loving Our Country

Last September, along with many of us on stage tonight and many of you in the audience, I signed an ACLU letter protesting Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air. The letter began, “We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech.”

Well, of course, you’re with me, right? Later the letter stated, “Regardless of our political affiliation or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country.”

Still with me? Not so fast.

The phrase, “we all love our country,” stuck in my throat. Because our country isn’t so lovable right now. I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser.

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A Country I Cannot Love

I can’t love a country that starts stupid and inhumane wars, killing thousands of innocents and indirectly causing the deaths and suffering of millions more.

I can’t love a country that takes health care away from millions of people and uses that money to enrich their pals in the Trump Epstein class.

I can’t love a country that sends out mass militias to shoot citizens in the streets, torture our neighbors, and separate families.

I can’t love a country that’s led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant.

And let me just say it, I can’t love the country that’s led by Donald Trump and his psycho-fan Congress.

I Want My Country Back

For most of my life, of course, I did love this country, the United States of America. It welcomed my immigrant ancestors. It gave me, my family, and my fellow citizens such rich opportunities and extraordinary freedoms.

I want to love my country again. I want my country back. That’s why I stand with the Committee for the First Amendment. And you. All of you.

Together we rise up, we sing out, we keep organizing, and we fall in love again. Thank you.

Second Speaker: On Collective Effervescence

TESSA THOMPSON:

Hi everybody. Wow, what a night. What a weekend, right? Last night, now this? I mean, come on.

I don’t know about anybody else, but last night, much as my spirit wanted to be celebrating in the streets, my body wanted to be celebrating on its couch. And that’s what I did, which is my American right.

But while I was doing that, I was looking at all of these photographs and videos of people celebrating in the street, and I came across a turn of phrase that I had never heard before, which is “collective effervescence.” And that is what we are engaging in tonight, so I want to thank all of you for being here.

Angela Davis said that it is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.

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George Floyd and the Fight for Justice

When George Floyd was murdered in Minnesota for being the wrong color at the wrong time, I took to the streets of Los Angeles where I live. And I linked arms with thousands of mourners in the streets, sharing in our collective grief and our outrage and our commitment to make his legacy a revolution.

Six years later, Minnesota was a battleground again after ICE murdered Alex Preti and Renee Nicole Good. And again, I was filled with despair and rage. But what was most heartbreaking and most enraging at the time about the murders was how unsurprising they were to me.

As a Black American, there is a kind of bone-tired exhaustion in fighting the battles that we have fought so many times before. In insisting time and time again, generation after generation, that people have the right to exist, even if they speak out against the state.

The Power of Community

But what happened in Minneapolis in the aftermath underscored Dr. Davis’ words so profoundly. When ICE made the streets unsafe and when the National Guard stormtrooped in, neighbors became comrades, moms’ texts turned into crisis response hotlines, schools became safe zones, the people had the power to protect one another.

And the people refused to let Renee Good and Alex Preti’s murders intimidate them into inaction. The collective became the hope. The community care is why my reservoir of optimism has not yet run dry.

I felt it then and I feel it now in this room together tonight. So it’s our job, even and especially in the face of despair, to keep that hope alive. So thank you.

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