Trump's AI Fantasy Goes off the Rails as Robert de Niro Gets Cast as a MAGA Supporter

Donald Trump has spent years trading insults with Robert De Niro. Now, he has used an apparently AI-generated image to create the ultimate fictional reversal.

On Sunday, September 6, Trump posted an image on Truth Social showing the Oscar-winning actor holding a red shirt emblazoned with the words, 'TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT'.

Trump's caption was blunt: 'Even this jerk is beginning to get it!'

The image portrays one of Trump's most outspoken Hollywood critics as though he has suddenly switched sides. But there is no evidence that De Niro has endorsed Trump or changed his political views.

The Ultimate De Niro Reversal

The image lands because the real De Niro has spent years doing almost the opposite of endorsing Trump.

Ahead of the 2016 election, De Niro called Trump a 'pig', a 'punk', and a 'bulls*** artist'. In 2019, he said he could not wait to see Trump in jail.

His criticism has continued into Trump's second presidency.

Last month, De Niro told USA Today that he no longer even used the word 'hope' when discussing the Trump administration, saying, 'They have to be gotten out.'

'He's just going to destroy not only the country, but other parts of the world. It's insane,' De Niro said.

That makes Trump's new Trump AI Robert De Niro image especially striking. It does not simply show the actor beside the president. It invents an apparent endorsement from someone whose public record points in the opposite direction.

Trump Once Called Him 'Wacko' and 'Low IQ'

Trump's own history with De Niro makes the AI makeover even more striking. In 2024, Trump wrote on Truth Social, 'I never knew how small, both mentally and physically, Wacko Former Actor Robert De Niro was.'

In another post that year, Trump accused De Niro of having a 'terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome' and called him a 'low IQ individual'. Now, the actor Trump once branded 'Wacko' is being presented in Trump's feed as though he has finally 'got it'.

The contradiction is almost tailor-made for social media. The real feud remains intact, while the Trump-Robert De Niro AI image supplies an entirely different version of the relationship.

Not the First Trump's First AI De Niro Attack

The latest post also follows an earlier use of artificial intelligence to target De Niro.

On July 2, Trump shared an AI-generated video portraying himself as a doctor supposedly treating celebrities for 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'. AI versions of De Niro, Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, John Leguizamo, Edward Norton, and Julia Roberts appeared as fictional 'patients' praising Trump's supposed treatment.

The video included fabricated testimonials from the celebrities, including an AI version of De Niro claiming that his opposition to Trump had made him miserable.

'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is a political insult used by Trump and his supporters, not a recognised medical condition.

The September image takes that same tactic in a different direction. De Niro is no longer depicted as someone who needs to be 'cured'. He is portrayed as someone apparently declaring allegiance to Trump.

A Fake Endorsement From a Real Political Rival

That distinction matters.

The image is not evidence that Robert De Niro became a Trump supporter. It is an apparently AI-generated portrayal of him as one.

That difference becomes particularly important when the image contains a direct political message. Someone encountering the picture without its original context could mistake it for an authentic photograph showing De Niro making an endorsement he never made.

The Trump-De Niro feud, meanwhile, is very real. De Niro has repeatedly criticised Trump, while Trump has responded with personal attacks of his own.

Trump's latest post simply creates a version of that relationship in which his longtime critic appears to have switched sides.

The AI Fantasy Continues

The De Niro image appeared during a wider burst of AI-generated material on Trump's social-media accounts, but this particular post stands out because it rewrites a very public personal and political feud.

For years, De Niro has been one of Trump's most persistent Hollywood critics. Trump has responded by attacking him personally.

Now, artificial intelligence has supplied an imaginary ending.

The real Robert De Niro has never declared, 'TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT'. Trump's AI version appears to do exactly that.

And that is what makes the latest chapter of their feud so bizarre: the endorsement exists in Trump's image, not in De Niro's own words.