Actor Richard Gere delivered a screen worthy meltdown over President Donald Trump on Tuesday during remarks at the Oslo Freedom Forum, describing him as a “maniac.”
“Who ever thought America could turn like this? Whoever thought that a maniac like this would be president of the United States?” the 76-year-old “Pretty Woman” star told the audience gathered in Norway’s capital.
Gere dramatically painted a bleak picture of the current political climate in the United States. “We’re living in the darkest moment that I’ve experienced on this planet,” Mr. Gere told the audience. “First day, this guy dismantled almost everything that was good about the U.S. government and the U.S. people.”
Gere converted to Buddhism and has maintained a close relationship with the Dalai Lama, and has resided in Spain with his wife, Alejandra Silva since 2024. In summation, Gere has not lived in the United States to experience his accusations of Trump’s “dismantling” of “everything that was good about the U.S. government and the U.S. people.”
“How is this even possible? Because we went to sleep. We didn’t care. We didn’t vote. We didn’t really listen,” he said, adding that he had not done enough to persuade voters against Mr. Trump.
Then Gere went to the lowest of lows tactic when all else fails: bring in the Nazis. Drawing on a recent trip to the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Gere warned of the dangers of ignoring early signs of authoritarianism.
“We have to see the cues — this dictatorship of the monsters — how quickly it happens,” he said.
The Washington Times reports Gere traveled to Oslo to present the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent, a human rights honor established in 2012 by the Human Rights Foundation. The award recognizes artists and activists who confront authoritarianism through their work. Among this year’s honorees were Chinese artist Gao Zhen, who is currently imprisoned in China on accusations of insulting national heroes, and Sai, a pro-democracy activist from Myanmar.
