Robert De Niro has never made his dislike of President Donald Trump a secret and as it became apparent that Trump lost the 2020 election, he reacted to the news by comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler and other notorious dictators. Sure he was happy to find out Trump’s days as president are numbered, but there was also a sense of sadness because he was disappointed to see that so many Americans voted for Trump, Mediaite reports.

But now he’s hoping supporters of President-Elect Joe Biden will “set an example” for those who supported Trump.

Appearing on MSNBC Monday night, host Ari Melber asked the noted actor his feelings on the election’s outcome.

“Well, I’m relieved,” De Niro told Melber. “Thank God.”

But De Niro feels dismayed that millions of Americans voted for Trump the second time around.

“It’s the same playbook as Mussolini, as Hitler, as a dictator, wannabe dictators,” he said. “It’s what they’re going to do for the people, make Germany great again, make Italy great again, make America great again.”

Rather than encouraging anything positive, De Niro noted this brings out the worst in some people.

“It’s all appealing to the worst prejudices, the worst weaknesses of the public, and then instead of leading them and guiding them and being someone that they can look up to,” he told Melber. “And when the public is not right, you have to be there to do the right thing, to set an example for them. And if you don’t, then we’re going to be where we are today.”

De Niro has long made his feelings known about Trump, perhaps most famously on stage during the 2018 Tony Awards, where he famously said “f*ck Trump.” While he says he’s usually not political, he feels it necessary to speak out during Trump’s presidency.

“I was so angry and so enraged and confounded that he would actually behave the way he did and that people bought it,” the legendary actor said. “Now I see many, many, many people in the country feel this way. I’m sad about other people who don’t. They’ve accepted him and would have voted for him and have voted for him. I don’t know why.”

He doesn’t paint a rosy picture in Trump’s aftermath and warns there will be other people like [Trump] in the future,” he said, noting “Somebody’s going to come along who’s a lot smarter, more sensitive, more mercurial and not so boorish and will be able to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. Then we will have a more serious, deeper problem and one that might actually get further than what Trump has done.”

Had Trump handled the pandemic a bit better, he might have been reelected, De Niro noted.

“I wouldn’t be happy about it, but he at least would have done something right. He didn’t even have to understand how to do that.”

As it stands, Trump is now trying to steal the election from Biden, who’s the clear winner. While it’s clear millions of people did indeed vote for Trump, it’s also clear millions more voted for Biden. Trump is trying to subvert the will of the people. We can only hope he doesn’t succeed.

I’ve included a clip of De Niro’s interview with Melber below.