Richard Gere Slams Trump as a 'Bully and a Thug' During Acceptance Speech at Goya Awards

Legendary actor Richard Gere referred to President Donald Trump as a "bully" and "thug" during a scathing acceptance speech at the Goya Awards.

Held at the Palacio de Congresos de Granada in Spain, Gere spoke candidly about the state of America and zeroed in on Trump's administration, describing it as a "foolish tribalism" that's "taking over."

"[I see] this very foolish tribalism is starting to take over, where we think we're all separate from each other," Gere said. "We have, unfortunately, elected officials that don't inspire us in the way we want to be inspired."

A clip of the segment was uploaded on X.

"I'm coming from a place now, where we are in a very dark place in America," Gere said. "Where we have a bully and a thug who is the president of the United States. But it's not in the U.S. It's everywhere."

Gere shared his words about Trump as he was accepting the honorary lifetime achievement award on Saturday, reported Variety.

Gere went on to give an anecdotal tale about an op-ed letter he read in the New York Times that discussed how totalitarian governments emerge.

"I read a really moving letter in the New York Times from a gentleman in Hungary" he said. "[And he was discussing] the slippery slope of how this happens everywhere. Authoritarianism takes us all over. We have to be vigilant. We have to be alert. We have to be energetic. We have to be brave. We have to be courageous."

"And everyone is watching this–in the Spanish speaking world and elsewhere," he said. "We have to be willing to stand up, tell the truth; be honest. And there's a place in all of our lives for basic kindness, for basic love, and understanding."

In January of this year, a professor at the New York University's Stern School of Business described the U.S. as on track to becoming a "kleptocracy" -- a system where corrupt leaders use political power to expropriate wealth.

"So we've gone full kleptocracy," Scott Galloway said on a segment of MSNBC's Morning Joe. 'We can never, in my opinion, wave our finger at Russia again when the president, the elected president is taking public trust and public authority and weaponizing government."

Trump will make history today becoming the first U.S. president to attend the Super Bowl.