Actor Rob Schneider recently shared that he found himself in a confrontation due to his support for President Donald Trump with fellow actor Robert de Niro and instead of getting into a political debate, he tried to diffuse the tension.
Newsweek reached out to Schneider and de Niro via email for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The Context
Opinions about Trump has driven wedges between people who support him and those who voice their strong opposition to him. Hollywood tends to support liberal politicians over conservative ones, and the celebrities who have shown support for Trump have found themselves at odds with their peers.
Schneider is a vocal supporter of Trump while de Niro is one of the president’s biggest critics.
What To Know
Schneider and de Niro were seated near each other during Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special earlier this year. Schneider told The Epoch Times in an interview that he saw de Niro two rows ahead of him and didn’t want to ruin his evening because of his support for Trump. He also didn’t want de Niro to ruin the event for him, so he hoped the two would just avoid politics all together.
However, that avoidance couldn’t last forever and when Schneider and de Niro found themselves close together in a cramped area at the end of the night, the conversation quickly turned political.
“I bump into him, and he turns around and has that particular expression that I think everyone knows [and says] ‘How could you support that schmuck?’” Schneider said de Niro asked him.
Schneider told The Epoch Times that de Niro was about to “really go at me.” However, Schneider said you can “choose to not have conflict,” and instead of getting into a political debate, he just said, “I love you.”
The actor said the response diffused the situation and it’s a moment that Schneider considers him being at his “best.”
“It’s what needed to happen,” he said. “The cancel culture, we’re not going to win. And when I say ‘we,’ I mean we as a society.”
Before Trump ran for president, he and Schneider were in Home Alone 2 together. Schneider played Cedric, a bellman at the Plaza Hotel and Trump made a cameo in the film. Schneider formally left the Democratic Party in 2013, a few years before Trump’s run for office. He voted for Trump in the 2016 election and endorsed him in the 2024 campaign after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. suspended his campaign.
Schneider has said he’s been somewhat blacklisted in Hollywood because of his political opinions and told The Daily Mail last year that he’s probably lost friends over politics.
In his interview with The Epoch Times, Schneider said battling over politics won’t move the country forward and eventually people will have to find some “common ground.”
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