Updated

Courtesy of actor Robert De Niro, we finally have an admission that the Trump-hater agenda has moved from stupid “resisting” to mindless rage. Gone is any pretense that President Trump’s opponents are genuinely concerned about policy or about the condition of the country.

On Sunday night at the Tony Awards for Broadway productions, De Niro was brought on stage to introduce singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. But the moment De Niro got to the microphone he attacked President Trump, using a vulgar invective favored by juvenile bullies.

“I'm gonna say one thing: f--- Trump," De Niro said. At that point the 75-year-old star of the upcoming “War with Grandpa” pumped his fists into the air. "It's no longer down with Trump, it's f--- Trump!"

Said on the eve of the Singapore summit, who knew that President Trump working for world peace would so infuriate De Niro?

De Niro’s outburst illustrates why the blind and irrational hatred of the president that has infected some on the left is called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The crowd cheered De Niro’s obscene comment, with what appeared to be half of the audience giving the insult a standing ovation.

In some television close-ups of sections of the crowd, you could see that not everyone was joining in on the fun. One shot, for example, showed a woman with her hand over her mouth looking horrified. Others sat gobsmacked, not applauding and certainly not standing.

The clip itself has gone viral on social media. It received massive news coverage. But there was little discussion of why some people in the theatre were appalled and did not applaud. It’s because they want their industry to survive. They want to keep working and keep making money.

Consider why awards shows are televised. They’re marketing extravaganzas. The Tonys are broadcast not because everyone in the country is on the edge of their seats wondering who will win Best Play. It’s because the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League are marketing the “excellence of Broadway” to the people they hope will leave their Middle American homes, travel to New York and see a Broadway play or musical.

When De Niro declared the effort to “dump” Trump was over, and now the mission was simply to f--- him, it was an admission that the only thing that matters now is to harm the president and his agenda. It was also a direct insult to everyone who voted for President Trump – the very people those invested in Broadway want to buy tickets.

Salena Zito, a national political reporter and co-author, with Brad Todd, of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics,” tweeted this after the De Niro debacle: “Dear Broadway, There are lots of families who voted for Trump who save to take their kids or wives to see stage productions either traveling to NYC or when the productions come to their hometown – they are your bread & butter. I don’t think you understand that you’re losing them.”

The moment Donald Trump became the president-elect, Democrats and Never Trumpers had a window open briefly when they could try to define the president. If you were intent on convincing people something about someone that was untrue, you would have to do it before people found out the truth.

That initial opportunistic braying of the left centered on claims that President Trump is an idiot, would destroy the economy, and would start World War III. Then we found out not that none of those things are true. Now with everything we know, when someone goes off unhinged like De Niro, the rage is inexplicable and evokes suspicion.

An actor tells us it’s time to f--- Trump because the economy is blossoming? Because unemployment is at historic lows? Because wages are increasing? Because ISIS is smashed? Because the leader of North Korea signed an agreement Tuesday after meeting with President Trump pledging to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula?”

One can imagine the conversation in family rooms, other than in Malibu and Manhattan, as the Broadway crowd stood to applaud the tirade.

Could some people actually want bad things to happen to Americans simply because they hate President Trump? We have the answer, courtesy of another creation of the entertainment industry, Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time.”

Last Friday, Maher told his audience he was hoping for another recession, because “one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people but it’s either root for a recession or you lose your democracy. ... I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point.”

Maher is “sorry if that hurts people.” Coming from a man who some reports indicate makes at least $10 million a year, we know a recession certainly wouldn’t hurt him.

A simple exchange on Twitter highlights how easily facts expose Trump hatred for the rank absurdity it is. A person tweeting as FunTrendsUSA was appalled that actress and author Alana Stewart found De Niro’s epithet to be disrespectful of the president.

FunTrendsUSA snapped back that President Trump “deserves to be cursed, disrespected & impeached. Look at what he's doing to this country!”

Stewart responded by saying: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it’s offensive to many of us to hear that kind of language on live tv. And I’m not sure what he’s doing so terrible since unemployment is lowest in 50 years & black and Hispanic unemployment lowest in history.”

Logic, reason, and facts will best mindless rage every time. They also guarantee another Trump victory in 2020.