A Hollywood heavyweight ripped into President Donald Trump on live television, swearing as he unleashed a blistering on-air rant. The outburst came during a promotional interview that quickly veered away from film and into furious politics, with the star making it clear he believes the country is heading in the wrong direction under its current leadership. Appearing on MS Now on Friday (February 27), Morgan Freeman was asked to reflect on the legacy of the late civil rights icon John Lewis, who died in 2020, and whether the United States still reflected the values Lewis fought for.

Freeman then launched into a blistering take down of the current president, slamming: “We have somebody sitting in the White House who’s leading us down a s**thole. I can’t understand how a convicted felon gets to be president," as he asked "How do you do that?" before he continued: "You say well, he was campaigning… I don’t care. That ruling went down before he stepped into the Oval Office so it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

The comments were made as Freeman promotes a new Prime Video drama set during the American Civil War, which he executive produced alongside Kevin Costner.

It is far from the first time Freeman has spoken out against Trump. During Trump’s first term, he publicly backed Hillary Clinton and later admitted the political direction of the country left him deeply uneasy.

Back in 2017, Freeman said: “As for politics today, I supported Hillary in the election, and now it feels like we are jumping off a cliff. We just have to find out how we land.”

More recently, the actor found himself dragged into the election cycle once again after false claims circulated online suggesting he supported Trump’s 2024 campaign. Freeman’s representatives were forced to issue a denial to Reuters after the misinformation went viral.

Freeman is not alone in Hollywood’s growing chorus of critics. In recent days, Trump has also clashed publicly with Robert De Niro.

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The Oscar winner launched his own attack on the president during an appearance on MS Now.De Niro said: “The story is our country, and Trump is destroying it, and who knows what his reasons are, but it’s sick, it’s f****d up. We have to save this country.”

Trump responded swiftly, taking to Truth Social to brand De Niro a “sick and demented person” with “an extremely Low IQ,” adding that the actor had “absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL”.

De Niro was characteristically blunt in speaking about Trump, saying that he “should not be president, period”.

He told The Guardian: “We are in a moment in our lives, in this country, where this guy is like a gangster,” he said.

“We say over and over again: ‘This is terrible, we’re in a terrible situation, we’re in a terrible situation,’ and this guy just keeps going on and on and on without being stopped.”