An armed man was shot and killed trying to force his way into Mar-a-Lago last Sunday.
Two days later, Robert De Niro went on a liberal podcast and said three times that Americans need to "get rid of" Donald Trump.
Now Bill O'Reilly has a message for the Secret Service – and if they act on it, De Niro's life is about to get very uncomfortable.
De Niro Said It Three Times the Day After the Mar-a-Lago Shooting
De Niro didn't say this six months ago in some forgettable interview.
He said it the day after a gunman with a shotgun breached the perimeter at Trump's Florida home and was killed by Secret Service agents.
The podcast – Nicolle Wallace's "The Best People" on MS NOW – dropped Monday, February 23.
The Mar-a-Lago shooting happened Sunday, February 22.
De Niro said "get rid of him" three times in the same interview.
Wallace never once asked what he meant by it.
O'Reilly didn't miss the significance.
"What do you mean by that?" O'Reilly said. "He's elected. Seventy-seven million people voted for him."
O'Reilly called for the Secret Service to bring De Niro in for intensive interrogation – and said point blank: "If he takes the Fifth, you could charge him."
Federal Law Makes De Niro's Words a Potential Crime — And O'Reilly Knows It
Former Secret Service agent William Gage put it plainly this week: Trump is the most threatened president in American history.
The agency investigates 4,000 to 5,000 threats against the president every year.
Threat levels spiked more than 150 percent after the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt – and climb every time political rhetoric escalates.
O'Reilly isn't calling for De Niro's arrest over political speech.
He's pointing to a specific law that already exists: 18 U.S.C. § 871 makes it a federal felony to "knowingly and willfully" threaten the president.
The statute doesn't require intent to carry out the threat.
Making the threat – in a context a reasonable person could interpret as threatening – is the crime.
De Niro also called Trump "the enemy of this country" and said he "will never leave" the White House.
That's not commentary about policy.
That's a man calling the sitting president an enemy and saying three times, the week an assassin showed up at his home, that Americans need to get rid of him.
The Kathy Griffin Secret Service Investigation They Hope You've Forgotten
This isn't new territory.
In May 2017, Kathy Griffin posed for a photo holding a fake bloodied, severed head of Donald Trump.
The Secret Service opened an immediate investigation.
Agents interrogated her for more than an hour, CNN fired her, and venues canceled her tour dates one by one until she said publicly the fallout had nearly destroyed her career.
She was ultimately cleared – but not before the Secret Service made her feel every bit of it.
Griffin posed for one photo.
De Niro said it three times the day after someone tried to break into the president's home.
If Griffin's photo triggered a federal investigation, O'Reilly's question is legitimate: why would De Niro's words – repeated, on a major platform, in that specific moment – not receive the same scrutiny?
What Comes Next
O'Reilly isn't predicting De Niro gets charged – he's predicting De Niro gets called in, and that the interrogation itself sends a message.
Picture Ted Nugent going on Fox News the day after someone tried to break into Obama's house and saying three times that Americans need to "get rid of" the president.
CNN would have run the clip on a loop for a week.
Schumer would have held a press conference demanding charges.
The Secret Service would have had Nugent in a chair before the segment ended.
De Niro did exactly that – and Nicolle Wallace didn't even ask a follow-up question.
Every celebrity who does this without consequence makes it easier for the next one.
Then the next one doesn't just say it.
The man with the shotgun at Mar-a-Lago last Sunday was the latest reminder of where that road leads.
O'Reilly is right.
The Secret Service should make an example out of De Niro – not because he's a celebrity, but because the timing and the repetition put this in a different category than venting.
De Niro can cry about his First Amendment rights all he wants.
The Secret Service has a simple answer: they don't have the luxury of knowing a person's intent.
That's not a threat to free speech.
That's the job.
Sources:
- Daily Caller, "Robert De Niro Repeatedly Calls to 'Get Rid Of' Trump in Podcast Dropped After Mar-a-Lago Shooting," February 23, 2026.
- Fox News, "Former Secret Service Officials Warn of Low-Tech Threats After Latest Mar-a-Lago Breach," February 24, 2026.
- Fox News, "Robert De Niro Claims Trump Will 'Never Leave' Office, Says 'Up to Us to Get Rid of Him,'" February 23, 2026.
- The Hill, "Bill O'Reilly Accuses Robert De Niro of Threatening Trump," February 27, 2026.
- TMZ, "Kathy Griffin's Gory Photo of Decapitated Trump Focus of Secret Service Investigation," May 31, 2017.
- Slate, "Kathy Griffin Was Interrogated for More Than an Hour by the Secret Service," July 5, 2017.
