Robert De Niro, who once said he dreamed of punching Donald Trump “in the face”, has rejected the idea he might ever play the former president because he “cannot see any good” in him.

The 80-year-old Hollywood veteran spoke about the upcoming US presidential election and why he fears Trump regaining the White House in November.

The Apprentice star and businessman is the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination after former UN ambassador Nikki Haley pulled out of the race.

Speaking on Real Time With Bill Maher, De Niro said: “The bottom line is, it’s Biden versus Trump. We want to live in a world that we want to live in and enjoy living in, or live in a nightmare.

“Vote for Trump and you’ll get the nightmare, vote for Biden and we’ll be back to normalcy.”

“I just don’t want to feel the way I did, and many of us don’t, after the election in 2016 where we couldn’t believe that it happened.

“The guy is a total monster.”

De Niro, who has played Mafia dons, hitmen and and a psychopathic killer in Cape Fear draws the line at ever portraying the former president for the cameras .

“I’d never play him as an actor because I can’t see any good in him. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing redeemable in him,” De Niro said.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023.Meanwhile, the only elected Democrat to challenge Joe Biden for the presidency, Dean Phillips of Minnesota, ended his long-shot Democratic presidential bid on Wednesday after failing to win a primary contest against him.

On Thursday, Biden turned his State of the Union speech into an animated argument for a second term as he laced into Mr Trump for espousing “resentment, revenge and retribution” and jeopardising freedom at home and abroad.

-AAP