A two-time Oscar winner who played Vito Corleone has boiled his message for President Donald Trump and the people he calls thugs down to three blunt words.
Hands Off Our Vote, a group campaigning to protect voting rights, put out the video carrying that message, and it was circulating online by Oct. 22, 2026. Robert De Niro, 83, makes a simple ask in it — that Americans cast their ballots before the Nov. 3 midterm Election Day.
“This is Robert De Niro, and I’ve got a message for them,” he said in the video, then delivered it. “No **** way!”
“Voting should be easy. You get to decide. That’s your right, that’s your superpower, but there’s a catch. There are some powerful people who want to take away that power,” De Niro said.
He framed the November ballot as a choice between two kinds of candidate. “If you want to elect politicians to prop up a would-be king who gets us into a disastrous war and corruptly profits from it, you can find them,” he said. “Or, if you prefer candidates who won’t cut your healthcare and won’t protect pedophiles, there are great choices there, too.”
“Vote early,” De Niro said. “And then, no matter what they pull on Election Day, your vote will already be banked.” He left it to voters to choose how and when, by mail or in person.
He asked anyone “as furious as I am at all these thugs who are messing with our votes” to find out through Hands Off Our Vote how to help. Supporters are fighting in the courts and demonstrating in the streets, he said.
Washington Hands California a Purge List
The Trump administration has pressed states to remove people it says are noncitizens from their voter rolls. On Oct. 15 the Justice Department sued California, asking a federal court to bar state officials from counting mail ballots cast by likely noncitizens until each voter’s citizenship can be determined.
Federal officials had delivered a list to California on Oct. 13 naming more than 20,000 people they considered likely noncitizens. The department gave the state 48 hours to review a password-protected thumb drive containing the names before suing, and California did not meet the deadline. Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the administration has provided no evidence supporting the claim that those people are likely noncitizens who were sent ballots. More than 23 million people are registered statewide.
Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general, sent a letter on Friday, Oct. 16, the day after the suit was filed, warning that officials who knowingly count those ballots “risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.” He addressed it to the Los Angeles County Counsel’s office and copied Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan.
Federal prosecutors followed on Oct. 23 with letters to at least 18 California counties ordering ballots from voters on the list set aside. On Monday, Oct. 26, a divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the department’s emergency appeal, saying it had moved before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter could rule. At a three-hour hearing in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 27, Carter appeared skeptical of the request, calling it a “monumental change” to an election already underway, said he intends to appoint a special master to examine how the list was compiled, and promised a ruling by Wednesday, Oct. 28. He closed the hearing by warning that any threats against state and county election officials should stop immediately.
The Justice Department has charged about 90 people with election misconduct of various types this year. Prosecutors allege 50 of them voted as noncitizens. More than 227 million Americans were registered to vote during the 2024 presidential election.
A Law Professor Calls It Deplorable
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and election law expert, said the letter “ups the ante by threatening election officials with potential criminal prosecution.”
He added: “It is deplorable that rather than work cooperatively and assist states in their election administration responsibilities, the federal government is making escalating threats and unreasonable demands beyond its power in the middle of an ongoing election.”
In an interview published Oct. 21, Hasen said federal pressure has pushed states and localities toward seeing Washington as an adversary. He pointed to the National Voter Registration Act, which generally requires systematic removals of ineligible voters to be completed at least 90 days before a federal primary or general election. “It’s not the kind of thing that ever has happened, that I’m aware of,” he said.
The Chant He Led in New York
De Niro appeared with actor Mark Ruffalo at a Hands Off Our Vote event in New York on Oct. 4, where he led the audience in a profane chant built on the group’s name. Ruffalo shared the new video on social media with the hashtags #no****ingway and #handsoffour****ingvote.
The group’s website accuses the administration of trying to keep people from voting, to control elections and seize more authoritarian power. The site says the group refuses to accept that and that the will of the people will prevail.
De Niro has criticized Trump for years, and earlier in 2026 he described the president as a danger to the nation’s liberty and safety. Trump has hit back repeatedly, calling the actor “a sick and demented person” and “pathetic and sad.”
