President Trump’s Desperate Twitter Response to De Niro [OPINION]

Regardless of anyone’s opinion on Donald Trump, it can be agreed that he really enjoys using Twitter as a platform to discuss his beliefs and opinions on various subjects- remarkably more often than former presidents. On some (not so rare) occasions, an individual in the public eye makes a public remark about Donald Trump, and he feels the need to let all of his Twitter followers exactly how he feels about said individual. This can be observed quite recently when Donald Trump made some interesting remarks about Robert De Niro on his Twitter page. De Niro had recently made a vulgar anti-Trump remark at the Tony awards, and Trump decided to respond via Twitter, referring to De Niro as a “low IQ individual” and suggested the actor had brain damage and called him “punch-drunk,” referencing his acting gig as a famous boxer. It is natural instinct to bite back when someone takes a jab at you, but is it right for The President of the United States to stoop to the level of name calling on the internet?

Certain responsibilities come with leading one of the most powerful and influential nations on the planet. Some of these responsibilities include a certain level of professionalism and a general image of self-confidence. These characteristics in an individual provide a sense of security and contentment in a nation. Donald Trump’s reaction to Robert De Niro’s remarks displayed the opposite of these key characteristics. It is widely known and agreed upon that it is considered immature to target someone and make fun of their intelligence, looks, or any other quality that cannot be changed. It is also known that when someone points out someone’s flaws in this manner, they are simply insecure and projecting their insecurities onto others. Trump is known on social media for doing these things when called out by someone in the public eye. One example is when Trump referred to Rosie O’Donnell as “obnoxious and dumb” in 2014 after receiving public criticism from her. There is no shortage of Trump tweets that target individual’s personal qualities, and it is a bit unnerving. Therefore, when Donald Trump made remarks to Robert De Niro on twitter targeting his intelligence and mental stability, he was projecting his own insecurities in an immature and frankly unnecessary fashion.

Now, one could make the argument that De Niro’s remarks were unnecessary in the first place, which is more than agreeable. While celebrities have a large public following and are able to use their popularity to express their opinions, there is a time and place for politics, and perhaps the Tony awards are not the best environment for it.

However, as the leader of the United States, Trump could have easily taken the upper hand. He arguably would have been viewed as the winner or “bigger man” of this exchange had he not clapped back in such a defensive and immature fashion. Targeting intelligence was especially unnecessary in this specific situation, seeing as Robert De Niro was simply stating how he felt about Trump. While it was not the nicest (or cleanest) way of stating his opinion, he still refrained from mentioning any personal or external qualities about Trump in a negative fashion.

He strictly stuck with his own opinion and did not assume or speculate anything about the President (unlike how Trump responded speculating greatly about De Niro’s IQ and mental health). Fact of the matter is, name calling and making fun of people’s mental capabilities is childish, and always comes off in that fashion, no matter what the situation.

On top of this, publicly calling someone names almost never results in more people on the name caller’s side- if anything, it turns more people off from you than before. There are simply larger fish for our president to fry than having the last word on Twitter in a spat with an actor. Every president of our nation has been aware of the large portion of people that do not approve of them. As president, it is maybe not the best mood to defend yourself against those who disapprove of you by jabbing back at them.

A more stable and self-confident president would focus on how he can appeal to as many of their people as he can rather than try to further the divide.