Richard Gere has issued a cautionary note to the Democratic Party, highlighting potential repercussions if they neglect to stay vigilant.
Addressing the audience at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway on Tuesday, the 76-year-old actor shared his thoughts on the current state of the United States. Reflecting on the nation’s journey, Gere remarked, “We are living through the darkest period I’ve ever experienced on this planet,” referring to the era under President Trump.
He questioned, “How did we arrive here? It’s because we became complacent. We stopped caring. We didn’t vote. We tuned out,” he explained.
Gere confessed, “I never cast my vote for this man, but I also failed to put in the effort to convincingly persuade those around me, whether they were close friends or mere acquaintances, that electing this individual as President was an insane choice.”
Describing President Trump as a “maniac,” Gere accused him of “dismantling almost everything valuable about the US government and its people.”
While acknowledging that the country has “never been without flaws,” Gere expressed hope, stating that the nation has always possessed the ability to “self-correct.”
Later in his monologue, Gere reflected on his recent visit to the concentration camp Dachau, using it as a warning for “how quickly our world can be taken from us if we fall asleep,” urging everyone to “see the cues.”
“We can’t sit back and go, ‘Ah, life is good. I’m fine. You know, I’ve got food. I got money. Blah blah blah. I got my house. I got another car. I’m thinking about this. I’m OK. I know he’s a bad guy, but it’s OK,’” Gere said. “But it’s not OK. It’s not OK. It’s never OK.”
“We have to see the cues, this dictatorship of the monsters, how quickly it happens,” he added. “We have to be vigilant.”
The “Pretty Woman” actor previously spoke to Variety in December 2025, after hearing the Dalai Lama, who he called a close friend, speak.
He told Variety that the experience made him think about how the United States was on the “very wrong track,” adding he doesn’t know how anyone could explain what President Trump “has done to this country” or “what it feels like to be an American now,” calling it “astonishing.”
“If we want a world a certain way, then we have to elect leaders who have a similar vision to us and will lead us towards this higher level of possibility — who we are as individuals and how we can create a world, a society where people can live with each other rather than this battlefield every day, all day long, with the craziness,” Gere said.
“Especially, as I say, coming from this very crude mentality that is now in our leadership.”
Gere and his wife, Alejandra Silva, moved to Spain at the end of 2024, with the actor telling Vanity Fair Spain that he thought of the move as “a great adventure” because he had never lived outside the United States.
He explained that the move was good for his wife, because “her family, her lifelong friends and her culture” are there, and it was a good trade-off since “she was very generous in giving me six years living in my world.”
When speaking with the Daily Mail in April 2025, Silva explained that the move is not permanent, noting “For a few years [we’ll live in Spain], and then come back. But we’re always coming back.”
“I’m with my family… I missed them a lot. But I miss the US. So we come back and forth,” she told the outlet.
