Richard Gere on Tuesday described Donald Trump as a “maniac” who destroys “everything good” during a public exchange in Oslo.
“We are living through the darkest time I have ever experienced on this planet. Who would have thought America could turn upside down like this? Who would have thought that such a maniac could become president of the United States?” said the 76-year-old American actor.
Richard Gere was in the Norwegian capital to award the “Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissidence” to the Chinese artist Gao Zhen, imprisoned in his country, and to the Burmese dissident Sai, on the occasion of the Oslo Freedom Forum.
“From day one, this guy dismantled almost everything that was good about the American government and the American people,” he said on stage in front of hundreds of people.
“How was this even possible? It’s because we fell asleep. We didn’t worry. We did not vote. We didn’t really listen,” he added, admitting himself to not having mobilized enough around him.
“We must remain vigilant”
Saying he recently visited the former Nazi camp Dachau, he warned against apathy.
“We need to see the signals, this dictatorship of the monsters, how quickly it is taking hold. We must remain vigilant,” he said.
In February 2025, the star actor of “Pretty Woman” and “American Gigolo” had already described Donald Trump as a “bully”, an English term describing a “brute” who harasses.
A long-time defender of Tibet and convert to Buddhism, Richard Gere has frequently met the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader whom Beijing accuses of stoking separatism in this region of the Himalayas.
The actor has lived in Spain with his Spanish wife Alejandra Silva since 2024.
