Trump Calls De Niro a 'Moron,' Says Hollywood's Begging Critics Will 'Probably' Get Their Tax Credits

President Trump stood in front of a packed Ocean Center in Daytona Beach on Friday night and did two things at once. He called Robert De Niro a "moron," and he said the Hollywood crowd that spent years trashing him is now lining up in his office asking for a federal tax break. Then he told the crowd he would "probably" give it to them.

The riff came deep into a rally for Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican running for Florida governor, four days before Tuesday's midterms. Trump was bragging about his old NBC show, The Apprentice, whose season finale he said drew 47 million viewers and "beat what used to be a great show, the Academy Awards."

"Now it sucks because people get up and use foul language about your favorite president," Trump said. "By the way, is Robert De Niro a moron? He's a moron. No, there's something wrong with him." He kept going: "I can't even watch him. He's like, gross. Then he goes into the comedies. He's no good for comedies. Maybe somebody should tell him, but he's terrible."

The beggars at the door

The De Niro shot was the setup. The punchline was about money. "Now they're all calling me, kissing my a**," Trump said. "They want tax credits for Hollywood 'cause Hollywood's dying." Other countries, he said, are taking the business. He described the people who "have been saying bad" things about him "for years" now sitting in the Oval Office calling him sir.

"See, the great thing about the Internet is that all you do is you press a button, and it tells you everything they've said for the last 20 years," Trump said. "Now they want tax credits because their industry is dying in this country, then I'll probably do it. Should I do it? Probably."

He named names, sort of. "I am being lobbied," Trump said, and he brought up "shifty" Adam Schiff, "one of the more corrupt politicians in the country," who has been cheering Trump on over the film credit. And he pinned the blame for the empty soundstages on Democrats, who he said let "Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia" take American movies. His prediction for the vote: "You'll have more Democrats voting for it than you do Republicans."

What most write-ups leave out: the bill already exists

Friday's coverage made it sound like Trump was floating a new idea from the podium. He wasn't. He has been pushing this for more than a year, and there is a real bill with real numbers sitting in the Senate Finance Committee.

It started with a stick. On May 4, 2025, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the American movie industry was "DYING a very fast death" because other countries offer "all sorts of incentives," and he told Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to start work on "a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands."

Then came the carrot. After a White House meeting with Jon Voight, his special ambassador to Hollywood, Trump wrote on Aug. 31 that "Congress should approve, immediately, a Federal Production Incentive to create Entertainment Jobs in America." Schiff answered the same day that he was "in strong agreement with the President."

On Sept. 24, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Schiff filed the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, S. 5552, with Reps. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) and Brian Jack (R-Ga.) carrying the House version. Schiff's own release says the bill "follows call for action by President Trump."

What the credit would actually do

According to the bill's section-by-section summary, it gives a 20% federal tax credit on wages paid for film and TV work done in the United States. Bonuses of 5 points each can push it to 30% for shoots in rural opportunity zones or disaster areas, independent productions, producers working in 10 or more states, and studios that bring more productions home from overseas.

There are strings. A movie or TV season has to cost more than $1 million, and at least 75% of the shooting days have to happen in the United States. News, live sports, talk shows, soap operas, social media content and ads are excluded. Star profit shares and residuals don't count toward the credit, and it would only apply to productions starting in tax years after Dec. 31, 2026.

That detail matters. The credit is built around crew paychecks, the electricians, carpenters, drivers and caterers, not the Oscar winner's back-end deal. Think of it less as a gift to De Niro and more as a bounty for every production that stops flying to Toronto or the Gold Coast.

Why Trump holds the cards

The politics here are upside down, and Trump knows it. The industry that roasts him at award shows is the one that needs him most. Scott and Schiff have bipartisan names on the bill, but conservatives are wary of handing a new tax break to an industry centered in deep-blue California, and the President's backing is the main reason the idea has momentum at all.

So Trump gets to do what he did Friday night: make Hollywood ask nicely, remind everyone what they said about him, and still back a plan to bring American jobs home. That is the America First pitch in one sentence. Keep the work here, and let the people who mocked it say thank you.

What happens next

The bill sits in the Senate Finance Committee, and the House version would go through Ways and Means. Nothing will move before Tuesday's election. After that, the question is whether a lame-duck or new Congress takes it up, and whether Trump turns that "probably" into a yes. We found no public response from De Niro as of Friday night.