One way for an aging actor to keep his name in headlines is to bash the President of the United States, the cruder the better. Robert De Niro has taken this route. He finds himself in his waning years known as a leading critic of President Trump.

It’s nothing new for entertainment elites to trash Republican presidents with the help of the mainstream media. De Niro goes above and beyond with his remarks. As a rule, his show biz pals applaud his bad behavior. For example, De Niro screamed “F**k Trump” as he introduced Bruce Springsteen during the 2018 Tony Awards. A rare exception was made during this year’s American Icon Award when he was actually booed by some audience members. He continues to swear his way through interviews as he bashes President Trump and Republicans in general. His schtick continued in a recent interview with the Daily Beast.

After talking about his movie career, the Daily Beast reporter complimented De Niro’s performance as Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live, which brought De Niro’s politics into the interview. De Niro described it as his “civic duty” to do that skit. It was his idea, not the writers of the show. Then as the conversation turned to General Mattis and others who don’t want to rock the boat, De Niro found an opening to call President Trump a “piece of sh*t”.

You have to make a decision, and Trump’s taken a lot of people down. He’s a piece of shit who never should have been there in the first place. It’s a joke. You look at this fool and you say, what’s happening? But I like that McRaven stood up and said something, because you are a public servant but you’re also representing integrity and strength, and you have to be able to say, no, there’s a real problem here. Maybe it’s The Apprentice? I never saw it, but my feeling is that had a big effect on people.

De Niro went off into conspiracy land as he went on to say that he fears not only that Trump will be re-elected but that the president will then go on to try to stay in office for a third term, too. Hoo boy. The reporter doing the interview is clearly a liberal egging on De Niro’s delusional thoughts, but this is quite something. He throws Martin Scorsese under the bus as the person who brought up the possibility that Trump would expect a third term.

I’m worried because if he gets re-elected, it’s gonna be very, very bad. Very bad on a lot of levels. We already have a lot of reparations, if you will—repairs—to do to the damage that he’s already done, and he has to be gotten out. Part of it too is, people have to go out and talk about what’s positive, because forget about him. He’s going to be history at one point, though he’d love to be president for life—he jokes about it. I think that if he became president for a second term he’d try to have a third term, and let smarter people manipulate it into getting us into some kind of altercation—a war. The only other president who served a third term was Roosevelt because he was in a war, and this fool would go and start something. This was what Marty Scorsese was saying, and I said, “Marty, I never thought of that. I never thought he’d go for a third term if there was a war or something. He joked about being “president for life” with Xi [Jinping], and so on, he’ll pardon anybody, he’ll do anything. The day after he was elected, I went on a TV show and said I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and say that I hope he won’t be as bad as I think he will be, but he’s turned out to be a lot worse.

It’s all so crazy, all this Trump Derangement Syndrome on display. President Trump, who ran on ending wars, would begin a war to stay in office? Also, let’s not forget the practical side of all this nonsense – Trump’s no spring chicken. He’ll be 74 years old when he is re-elected in 2020. That puts him at 78 years old for a third term, 82 after the completion of four years. Even with this year’s candidates on the Democrat side, that’s too old.

Who does De Niro think might beat out Trump in the 2020 presidential election? He likes Mayor Pete’s chances. He thinks Buttigieg’s resume as a soldier and a public servant add up to a victory for Democrats. Biden would be a safe choice but Buttigieg’s got more juice, apparently.

I don’t know. I like Buttigieg. Biden could get us into calmer waters, that would be a good thing. He means well, and to me, he’s a guy who would do the right thing, make the right decision. But Buttigieg I like a lot. He’s got all the credentials—Rhodes Scholar, Afghanistan veteran—even though he’s young, and if he could get a chance it could be something special, I think. As a gay person, he’s someone who comes from a marginalized community, so people from other ethnic groups can identify with him, even if they’re not gay, because they know what it’s like. I think he’s the best for what we need now. I have friends who really like him a lot, as I do. With Obama, he had the middle name “Hussein” and a lot of things that people tried to use against him—including Trump with the whole stupid “birther” thing—and he went right through it. It could happen with Buttigieg. And there’s Bloomberg.

It’s interesting that De Niro acknowledges that both Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are probably too far left for voters. Maybe there’s some hope for De Niro to return to reality down the road. Meanwhile, I must admit that I’m looking forward to the reactions from the Trump deranged when Trump wins again in 2020. At this point, it sure looks like it will happen. The fall-out will make the reactions after the 2016 election look tame in comparison.