Rob Schneider Reveals Robert De Niro Confronted Him at 'SNL50' for Supporting 'Schmuck' Donald Trump

Rob Schneider revealed outspoken Donald Trump critic Robert De Niro confronted him at the Saturday Night Live reunion in 2025 over this support for the president.

On the Thursday, March 12, episode of Bill O'Reilly's "We'll Do It Live" podcast, the comedic actor admitted it was "tough" for him to return for the SNL50 event because of his political views.

"They're so liberal," he claimed of the current cast. "And I knew there were going to be people that really, really hate Trump and I just didn't want to deal with it. And I've been very vocal in my approval [of Trump]."

Schneider clarified that he wound up going to SNL50 despite his hesitation and ran into De Niro, 82.

"He turns around and he's like, 'How can you support Trump? He's a schmuck,'" Schneider recalled.

"I grabbed him and said, 'Hey, I love you. I love you. I really love you.' And I do," he expressed. "I tell people, we're not going to win the cancel culture. We're going to have to do it some other way. It's going to have to be through love and understanding."

Despite attending SNL50, Schneider admitted that he thinks the show has lost its touch.

"Like any institution, it can get lost. And I think it got lost in this...the liberal intelligence. It took away the opportunities for laughs," he claimed. "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were the greatest opportunity in the last 25 years for humor."

"I think it was a miss. I think it was a lost opportunity," the 50 First Dates star, 62, said. "Any institution is not immune to the cultural pressure."

"I know they don't want to go to that place where they make fun of their own," he claimed. "And as [show creator] Lorne Michaels has said publicly, the Liberals, they don't have as much of a sense of a humor to laugh at themselves."

As OK! reported, Schneider previously claimed Hollywood turned on him when he publicly endorsed Trump for president.

When asked in a 2024 interview if he feels he was "blacklisted" for his views, the comic replied, "Yes. Hollywood doesn't want any controversy at all because they don't make decisions based on what the best movie is, they make decisions on something much more arbitrary."

"The decisions that the executives make is based on ‘what will delay my inevitable firing the longest?’ and if they work with somebody like me who's outspoken, they might get fired," he alleged. "So I understand it, but at the same time, I think people will come around."