Richard Gere slams 'maniac' Trump, accuses him of 'dismantling America'

Eminent actor Richard Gere slammed U.S. President Donald Trump while speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum. He claimed that he was living in the "darkest moment" that he had experienced in his life since Trump returned to office for a second term. "Whoever thought America could turn like this? Whoever thought that a maniac like this would be president...and dismantle all the good things?" he asked as the crowd applauded his words.

Gere admitted that the United States was never a perfect place, but it had perfect ideals towards which it strived. However, he claimed that since Trump returned to office, he had "dismantled" all that was good about the American government and people. The actor said that the country was in a situation with Trump as President because voters "went to sleep."

He also held himself accountable for Trump getting elected as the President for a second time. "I did not do enough work to skillfully convince people around me, close to me, not close to me, that this was insane to elect this person as the President of the United States," he said. "So we all have to take responsibility for this, but how quickly...this was in weeks, he had dismantled America."

Gere urged people to take "cues" and be "vigilant," considering how quickly a "dictatorship of the monsters" unfolds. As he spoke about dictatorships, the veteran actor drew parallels to Nazi Germany. He had visited Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp in Germany, as per a Daily Beast report, and said that the camp's exhibition portrayed "the transformation of German society and German government and how quickly it happened there." He said that good men were turned into monsters and that the world could be "taken from us" if people did not act soon enough.

"We can't sit back and go, 'Ah, life is good. I'm fine. You know, I've got food. I got money. Blah blah blah. I got my house. I got another car. I'm thinking about this. I'm OK. I know he's a bad guy, but it's OK,'" Gere said passionately. "But it's not OK. It's not OK. It's never OK," he added. This is not the first time the 'Pretty Woman' star has criticized President Trump. He expressed similar sentiments in Barcelona last year as well.

"He's not only crazy, he's a dark, dark presence, and it's happened so quickly," he said, as per Huffpost, claiming that it only took Trump six months to "destroy" the country. "This is not someone who can change...He has to go, and all the enablers in the coalition that he has together, they all have to go." Earlier that year, he had termed the U.S. President a "bully" and a "thug."