Richard Gere on Trump: "We're living in the darkest moment that I've experienced on this planet. Whoever thought America

[demmiblue]

Richard Gere on Trump: “We’re living in the darkest moment that I’ve experienced on this planet. Whoever thought America could turn like this? Whoever thought that a maniac like this would become president and dismantle all the good things?”

Richard Gere on Trump: “We’re living in the darkest moment that I’ve experienced on this planet. Whoever thought America could turn like this? Whoever thought that a maniac like this would become president and dismantle all the good things?”

— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) 2026-06-03T15:09:35.881Z

[Dave Bowman]

1. Totally agree with him.

[dalton99a]

3. The Republican Party gave us the monster.

[ShazzieB]

8. The Republican Party, and (unwittingly) NBC TV.

I will always believe, unless someone can provide evidence to the contrary, that The Apprenctice, which aired on NBC, is what launched his political career. He was just a washed up, multiply bankrupted, wouldbe real estate mogul until that TV show came along and presented him as the smart, savvy businessman he had never been and positioned him to acquire a nationwide base of fans who were primed to gobble up whatever he served them.

He had threatened to run for potus many times in the past but never acted on it until that show made him a "star" (as in "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything." *gag* ) His deep resentment of Obama lit the fuse, but The Apprentice provided the fuel.

Was the network or anyone associated with the show aware that they were creating a political monster? I don't think so, but that is what they did nonetheless. And it sucks beyond belief.

[Justice matters.]

15. Don't forget FOX NEWS and its multimillionaire liars

A right-wing propaganda machine on giant color teevee almost 24/7 spewing all sorts of lies and misinformation. A machine that forced the Democratic administrations to leave its 1932-1968 platform on the left and suddenly start to lean to the right, not implementing a Universal Healthcare system for all and reigning in the healthcare insurance corporations for profits, thus securing its re-election by simply warning voters they were going to lose their "free" healthcare system to voracious right-wing profiteers if they elected the Republicrooks party.

[The Roux Comes First]

26. And, For Whatever Reason (Bribery, Sick Insider-ism?) a Sleazy, Truly Unbelievably Nazi-like Propagandistic

Station that ran 24-7 in way too many installations for many years, like military bases and transit stations. PBS should be the default for those venues, if we could simply keep PBS from being de-funded as "too democratic."

[RT Atlanta]

27. and their voters too!

n/t

[paleotn]

4. No one thought the land of Beethoven, Goethe and Kepler would go nazi until it did.

[Ponietz]

5. Thank you Mr. Gere for speaking up in 2026

2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025 would have been better but okay.
I hope you’re registered to vote.

[maxsolomon]

6. You know he didn't speak up earlier?

You think an actor speaking against Trump at any time in the last 10 would have changed anything? Hundreds of celebrities more influential than Gere did and we still wound up in hell.

[milestogo]

7. Gere has always spoken up.

He's a good actor and a good man.

[femmedem]

31. In February 2025, while accepting a Goya Lifetime Achievement award, he called Trump a bully and a thug.

https://variety.com/2025/film/global/richard-gere-donald-trump-goya-awards-1236301582/

Edited to add that in 2024, he urged people to vote for Kamala: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DB7rL9HR5r-/

[ZDU]

9. Lots of powerful people ...

... allowed this to happen. Denial is powerful. And seeing something and saying nothing.... shame, shame, shame

[wnylib]

22. There were some deniers here on DU.

I don't mean trolls. Regular posters knew that Trump was a lying grifter who was hurting the nation. But, they denied that he would try to stay in office or resort to violence. It had not happened in US history so they could not believe that it would happen in 2020.

Based on his personality type and on warning articles in publications like the Atlantic, plus testimony from Michael Cohen, I posted that Trump would not only refuse to admit that he lost, but he would use violence to stay in power.

Regular posters responded with their belief that Trump was all mouth but no action, like a lot if bullies. They said that his base were couch potatoes who would not fight. They said that I was alarmist and a conspiracy theorist.

I wish that they had been right.

[ZDU]

24. Understood

I too was seen as "alarmist" and "fearful" when I argued my position. Today, I'm not smug... nor do I say, "I told you so." What I say is this: "Things are going to get bad. Prepare yourself."

[wnylib]

28. Yes, I think that things will get worse before they get better.

Hope I am wrong this time.

[Shoeless Louis]

33. Similarly, a big division existed around whether Merrick Garland...

… was a deadbeat. Lots of people felt he was just dotting the ‘i’s etc. and ‘getting prepared. I and so many others were roundly chastised. I am sure you like myself, find no joy in saying “I told you so”. We need the optimism as much as the pessimism, and to stay strong, safe and united. Power to the people.

[wnylib]

34. I regret that I was one of Garland's defenders.

I believed in him because I believed that Biden would have appointed the right person for the job.

But even a good president like Biden could make a mistake in not appointing the kind of aggessive AG that we needed.

Garland failed us. When Dems are in control again, we will know better from that mistake.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

10. Amen!

[LoisB]

11. Richard Gere will now be the recipient of a mean tweet or truth social post that he

is a talent-less,washed up has been that no one ever liked.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. "Whoever thought America could turn like this?"

Some of us did. Some of us saw it coming.

But, no one who needed to cared to listen.

[popsdenver]

17. Bingo OB

They were all walking down the Jungle Path swatting at mosquitoes, and were oblivious to the herd of charging elephants......
PUN INTENDED............

Some of us were screaming our heads off from the rooftops since HWBush Treasonously stole the election and installed Reagan in the White House as a front man pawn....

[OldBaldy1701E]

23. Yes indeed! (n/t)

[radical noodle]

32. HW Bush stole the election and installed Reagan?

Can you explain that?

[popsdenver]

36. Reagan/Bush

arranged a deal.........Iran was going to return U.S. Hostages, and HW made contact with them and told them that they would get a much better deal, if they waited until Reagan was in office, rather than Carter.......to make Carter look weak....
And it worked................
That may have been the first "October Surprise" the Republicans had ever pulled.......

[radical noodle]

37. I do remember that now...

but I don't think I knew HW was behind it. Thanks!

[popsdenver]

38. HW

did the same thing as Cheney/Bush did with WBush...........Using Reagan as a "front man" while HW ran things in the back ground........HW was the perfect guy to work Treasonously with IRAN, being the previous head of CIA for years........

Getting Reagan installed was the start of 46+ years of massive amounts of corruption by these "New" Republicans.....
Over 100 of Reagan's CABAL were indicted for corruption, the first day HW was in office, after 8 years of Reagan, the first thing HE did was to pardon those 100+.............(sound familiar???????) They accomplished countless things to bring down the middle class, and to lower the wealthy's tax rates AND corporate tax rates substantially.......all done from the shadows and behind smoke a mirrors. No different than Cheney Rumsfeld did during WBush's years, and even more so during the Trump Terms........

A perfect title for a book about the past 46+ years of America Politics would be: WHILE THE NATION SLEPT

Another book title for the future would be: THE UNITED CORPORATIONS OF AMERICA

Hang in there RN........we ain't seen nothing yet........The Heritage Foundations and 2025 group are running all of this from the shadows, with Trump as their front man..........with the complete backing of a 95+% Republican owned/operated Media, the Republican Senators, The Republican House Members, and the United States Supreme Court Republican Justices......
AND an ever increasing number of Republican State Governors........esp states like Florida and Texas......

[radical noodle]

39. Thanks for this

I was busy with family and work during those years and took a breather from politics after Vietnam was finally over. I knew Reagan was awful, but not much beyond that.

I'm 78, so doubt I'll live to see the country come out from under all this. I wonder if it ever will.

[relogic]

13. The frog

in the tepid water water is now deliciously boiled to the totalitarian standards we’ve who paid attention seen since at least 11/2000. Like the horror of watching one’s country malformed step-by-egregious-fascist-rulings-policies-step.

Here we are. Will an opposing party find the awareness, fortitude and purpose to reverse to any normal pre-mellenial democracy? I’m watching and waiting for our election apparatus and courts to obstruct this train wreck. Let’s be really honest. Does anyone think the corruption, greed, disengagement and apathy within the American society will be defeated or obstructed sufficiently to improve the lives of the least of us?

We’re not defeatist. We are not defeated. We are distinguished. Our fragile frogs jumped from the stench of their murky swamp from the get go and we’re not onboard their rotting boat.

[BaronChocula]

14. Again, this was not an overnight thing

Pro-white voters, some of whom didn't realize how pro-white they were have been preferring pro-white simpleton candidates over thoughtful pro-equality candidates for decades. Pro-white simpletons have been scaring white voters with specters of welfare queens, Willie Horton, the "crack epidemic," Black urban crime, Ebonics, Sharia Law, and so on. The fear-mongering has worked to keep communities under threat and underserved. The president who actually appointed the first two black secretaries of state ironically used the Civil Rights division of the DOJ to investigate discrimination against white voters. He also appointed a SCOTUS chief justice whose agenda has included rolling back the Voting Rights Act, something at which he continues to be successful.

Pro-white whites have always gotten away with it. And they do it with the cooperation of mainstream institutions like news media. The pro-white whites have always taken a pass on the right people to "lift us up where we belong." (Sorry, couldn't resist)

[Midwestern Democrat]

16. The reputation of this country will never be restored within my lifetime. I mean, electing Trump ONCE was bad enough -

it could have been somewhat waived away as a one-time fluke but there would have always been a nagging sense that it could happen again. But TWICE? Forget about the "nagging sense" it could happen again - the whole world now pretty much knows it could happen at anytime - the only thing possibly saving us is that Trump is a unique figure - it's not like there's a bunch of other right wing demagogues who have the same kind of messianic hold on millions of people that he has.

[LSparkle]

18. My heart is broken ... I will not see my America again

I’m going to live out my days regrettably in this dystopian nightmare once known as the U.S.A.

[ColoringFool]

19. Born in same year (1949), same Eastern PA, have same sentiments.

[dedl67]

20. "Every day I ask myself the same question:

“How can this be happening in America? How can people like those be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination.”

Philip Roth, “The Plot Against America” (2004)

[calimary]

29. Great quote!

Hey, I’m loving this whole thread!

[dave99]

21. Strange that the Mass Media picked _this_ up.. Wonder what is going on ?

[BlueTsunami2018]

30. Some people saw it coming decades ago.

When we went from a bottom up economy to a top down economy, the writing was on the wall. When everyone decided to cater to the ruling class exclusively, it was only a matter of time before we descended into straight up fascism.

Outsourcing, offshoring, downsizing, deregulating, imperialist wars….all bad, all only serving the owners.

And no one is innocent, everyone who has held power over the past sixty years contributed to it to a greater or lesser degree.

And it’s not just the people in power at fault, it’s those who put them there, the American People. For being too apathetic to do even the slightest bit of reading or research into what these policies mean for them. For chasing the stupid culture war shiny objects as if they matter more than the policies that have been robbing them blind.

I’m disgusted with everyone.

[young_at_heart]

35. I have said these same words.....MANY times!

I was born almost exactly 10 years before him (9/19/1939) so I can really relate when he says "whoever thought America could turn like this"? Some of us who have "experienced" this country for such a long time may be in a state of shock (I know I am) at all that has happened and continues to happen. It has affected my heart, my shingles have reactivated painfully and I feel in a constant state of unrest. I feel very sad!