Everything Robert Redford Has Said About Donald Trump

Robert Redford, the beloved Oscar-winning actor and director has died at the age of 89.

His death was announced in a statement to the New York Times by Cindi Berger, the chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK. She said he died in his sleep at his home in Utah, without detailing the cause of death.

Redford was an acting and directing giant, whose roles in films such as The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Out of Africa are loved the world over. He won the Oscar for Best Director for Ordinary People in 1981.

Beyond his Hollywood legacy, Redford was known for his outspoken views on American politics — and Donald Trump was no exception. Throughout Trump’s rise and presidency, Redford often weighed in with sharp criticism and warnings about the president’s impact on democracy.

‘I Think He Shakes Things Up’

In 2015, Redford told Larry King Now, when asked about Trump. “Look he’s got such a big foot in his mouth, I’m not sure you’re going to get it out. But on the other hand, I’m glad he’s in there.”

He added: “I’m glad he’s in there because him being the way he is, and saying what he says the way he says it, I think shakes things up and I think that’s very needed. Because on the other side, it’s so bland, it’s so boring, it’s so empty.”

Responding in a Twitter post focusing on the latter remarks, Trump tweeted: “Wow! Such nice words from Robert Redford on my running for President. Thank you, Robert,”

A spokesperson for Redford told the Hollywood Reporter at the time that the quote reflects the actor’s enjoyment of Trump as a character, but doesn’t indicate his support for Trump as president.

‘Degrades Everything He Touches’

In a 2019 op-ed in the Washington Post, a year before Trump’s second impeachment, Redford argued against impeaching Trump, saying instead that voters should use their power to kick him out of office.

He expressed deep frustration with the state of American politics under Trump, describing a sense of “outrage and despair over what is happening right under our noses.” Still, he noted that America had faced crises before and managed to “pull back from the brink”, asking whether the country could do so again.

Redford was unsparing in his assessment of Trump: “It is painfully clear we have a president who degrades everything he touches, a person who does not understand (or care?) that his duty is to defend our democracy.”

But he warned against impeaching Trump, who was impeached in January 2021 — for the second time — over his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The article of impeachment, passed by the House of Representatives on January 13, 2021, charged him with “incitement of insurrection.” Rather than relying on impeachment or special counsel investigations, Redford urged citizens to take matters into their own hands through the electoral process.

‘Dictator Like Attack’

In another 2019 NBC News op-ed, Redford delivered one of his strongest denunciations of Trump, framing the then-president as a direct threat to America’s democratic foundations ahead of his impeachment. Redford warned: “We’re up against a crisis I never thought I’d see in my lifetime: a dictator-like attack by President Donald Trump on everything this country stands for.” He argued that Trump’s actions had undermined truth, the rule of law, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.

Redford acknowledged that when Trump was first elected, he believed it was fair to “give the guy a chance.” But, he wrote, Trump “almost instantly began to disappoint and then alarm me.” Drawing on his memories of World War II, Watergate, and 9/11, Redford contrasted past moments when Americans united in the face of crisis with Trump’s presidency, which he said had left the country fractured. “Instead of the United States of America, we are now defined as the Divided States of America,” he wrote.

This is a breaking story and is being updated.