Taxi Driver and Godfather actor Robert De Niro has never been one to mince words when it comes to Donald Trump. He even went so far as to call him a "f*cking fool” during a January awards show, and state at a fundraising dinner that "He’s still an idiot. And he lacks any sense of humanity or compassion," among other insults. So it's hardly surprising that the Democrat actor would therefore ban the head of state from entering any of his Nobu restaurants.
In a recent interview with Mail Online, De Niro stated: "I don't care what he likes. If he walked into a restaurant I was in - I'd walk out,' before adding that he would "never let Trump into any Nobu restaurant." Meanwhile, Nobu co-founder Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, quipped that he’d like to serve both De Niro and Trump simultaneously, stating: "It's my dream for Trump to sit next to Bob. To make them sushi!"
Unfortunately for De Niro, it seems as though the president has already patronised the chain. The president apparently dined at a Nobu restaurant in Moscow back in 2013 alongside "more than a dozen Russian executives and business tycoons," according to a Bloomberg report.
However, the Hollywood Reporter has since reached out to Trump's PR agent for comment, and they claim that Trump has not been excluded, stating: "Bob has not banned anyone from dining at Nobu ... I know what they wrote. No one is banned."
Chef Nobu Matsuhisa's acquaintance with De Niro first began in 1987, after he opened his own restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. The eatery was very popular with Hollywood celebrities, and De Niro was so impressed with the quality of the menu that he soon invited Nobu to set up a restaurant with him in New York. The two men subsequently founded the Nobu restaurant chain in 1993, which boasts venues in Milan, London, Qatar, Greece, Dallas, Tokyo, Honolulu, Moscow, Dubai, Mexico City, Budapest, Hong Kong, and more recently, Marbella.