Actor Richard Gere launched a scathing attack at a forum in Oslo on Donald Trump, whom he called “a maniac”, and said that the United States is going through, in his opinion, the “darkest period” in decades.
The American actor Richard Gere, known from films such as “Pretty Woman” and “American Gigolo”, was on Tuesday, June 2, in Oslo, where he participated in a public discussion, during which he harshly attacked the President of the United States Donald Trump, whom he called “a maniac” who “destroys everything that is good”.
The discussion started from the way the Hollywood star sees the world we live in and especially the situation in the United States, after the return of Donald Trump for a second term in the White House.
“We are living in the darkest time we have ever known on this planet. Who would have imagined that the United States would take such a turn? Who would have imagined that a maniac would become the President of the United States?” the actor asked rhetorically during his speech at the Oslo Freedom Forum, before accusing Trump of destroying the great ideals of the American nation.
“The United States has never been a perfect place, but it has had a perfect ideal to strive for and has been able to self-correct. But from day one, this guy (Trump) has dismantled almost everything that was good about the United States government and the American people.” added the Hollywood star, quoted by elpais.
To explain his idea of how quickly things can change in a society, he made a comparison with what he saw in the Dachau camp.
“At Dachau I saw the transformation of German society and government in the 1930s and how quickly it happened, how ordinary people ended up turning into monsters,” he said. “Do you see how quickly our world can be stolen?”, he warned, also drawing attention to the rapid emergence of what he called “monster dictatorships”.
The Hollywood star made his mea culpa, although he says he did not vote for Donald Trump.
“Of course I did not vote for this individual, but I did not do enough to convince those around me, close or not, that it is madness to elect this person as president of the United States.” the actor stated, concluding: “We all have to take responsibility for what happened.”
It was not the first time that Richard Gere criticized President Donald Trump in harsh terms. In February 2025, in Granada, where he received the Goya Internacional award, he called him a “bully”, explaining that he meant a “brutal man” who intimidates others and saying that “the whole world is in danger” because of his decisions, which he sees as “dark movement after dark movement”.
He also spoke at the time about the people around the president, whom he called “clowns,” who he said were “putting on their own show in the offices in Washington, near the president.”
