Actor Richard Gere lashed out at President Donald Trump as a “bully” and a “thug” on Saturday, choosing an awards ceremony in Spain to deliver his insults before lamenting the U.S. is now in a “very dark place.”
The 75-year-old, who received an International Goya Award at Spain’s top film honours, used his claimed political prescience to further warn the world authoritarianism is on the rise “everywhere.”
“We’re in a very dark place in America, where we have a bully, a thug, who’s the president of the United States. But it’s not just in the U.S., it’s everywhere,” he said, repeating an accusation he made in 2016 when he said Trump is “a guy who’s obviously Mussolini” and “a clown” plus a “demagogue.”
“Authoritarianism takes us all over,” Gere repeated Saturday.
The caustic appraisals by the Pretty Woman and American Gigolo actor follow criticisms he made of Trump during a press conference in Granada on Friday, AFP reports.
During Saturday’s gala, Spanish actor Antonio Banderas presented Gere with the honorary award for “his extraordinary contribution to the art of filmmaking” and his social commitment to various causes, including the plight of refugees and the homeless.
During his speech, Philadelphia-born Gere warned of the “dark marriage” of power and money “like we’ve never seen before”.
“The fact that these irresponsible and perhaps dangerously corrosive billionaires are running everything in America right now is a danger for everyone on this planet,” he said.
This is no the first time Gere has attacked Trump.
In 2016 during that year’s presidential campaign, the actor told the BBC that Trump being president is “everyone’s nightmare” and his campaign “is disgusting.”