It’s getting tiresome how the rich and famous continue to be too daft to recognize their own hypocrisy. A roster of Hollywood figures gathered in New York City on Sunday evening for Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment, to lament about how their free speech is being stolen by none other than the President Hollywood elites love to hate: Donald Trump.
The Guardian reported on the event, organized by the Committee for the First Amendment and co-executive produced by Jane Fonda, combined music, speeches and political activism during a two-and-a-half-hour program at Manhattan’s historic Town Hall. The venue was selected in part because of its ties to the women’s suffrage movement.
Actor Robert De Niro opened the evening with a jab at a simultaneous White House UFC event, telling attendees: “Good evening, everyone, and welcome to all of you who couldn’t get tickets to the White House cage fights.”
“I don’t love a country that’s led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant,” said De Niro; a comical display of all the big words he knows.
“When I hear Trump say, as he did a few days ago, ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, not even a little bit,’ I say, ‘Shut the f**k up,’” De Niro said.
The hypocritical audience members, so concerned about their rights to speak up, responded by chanting De Niro’s words to “shut the f**k” up. Fonda struck a similar tone, though with less profanity, accusing government officials of suppressing artistic and cultural institutions.
“The government and its cronies are routinely violating the first amendment to silence artists, shuttering institutions like the Kennedy Center and defunding museums,” she said.
The event also highlighted Fonda’s long family connection to political advocacy. Organizers noted that her father, Henry Fonda, helped establish the original Committee for the First Amendment, which was formed to support the Hollywood Ten after they were blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 over alleged communist ties.
Fonda revived the organization in 2025 following Trump’s election to a second term. Addressing the audience, she argued that modern political pressures differ from those faced during the blacklist era.
“What is really different from the last century is that the attacks are coming from every part of the government: the executive, the legislative and the supreme court,” she proclaimed.
She later added, “there is a clear effort to destroy our fundamental Democratic rights and dramatically retake our form of government … no way. I think the un-American Activities Committee right now is coming from the White House.”
The evening also featured performances from singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who performed Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and musician-poet Patti Smith, whose rendition of People Have the Power earned a standing ovation from attendees.
Midler energized the crowd with a modernized version of Woody Guthrie’s anti-fascist anthem All You Fascists Bound to Lose, incorporating contemporary political references, including the lyric:
“We’re gonna win the midterms, we’re coming for his ass.”
Speaking to supporters afterward, Midler reflected on the atmosphere inside the venue.
“I’m so thrilled that you understand,” Midler told the audience. “I feel like I’m part of a community that is so bright, so intelligent, so well meaning, and so desperate for justice. I’ve been around a long time, but I’ve never been through what we’re living through now.”