NEW YORK, June 11 -- The Tony Awards, the highest honor for Broadway, witnessed additional drama Sunday night when Hollywood legend Robert De Niro dropped an expletive about U.S. President Donald Trump, triggering wide controversy.

Coming out swinging like former world middle-weight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, the role he played in "Raging Bull", the two-time Oscar-winning actor came on stage to introduce another icon, singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, but paused to launch a right hook at the president during a live broadcast.

"F--- Trump!" he roared, even though foul language and profanities are prohibited on public airwaves in the United States.

"I'm gonna say one thing," he said. "F--- Trump! It's no longer 'Down with Trump.' It's f--- Trump!"

His remarks were met with a standing ovation from Broadway artists and Hollywood insiders at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

De Niro went off script in the Tony Awards telecast, and the offensive language was deleted from the broadcast, the CBS reported.

In today's nose-thumbing Twitter age, the reaction to De Niro's outburst was swift and polarized, making the controversy mount.

One of the evening's big winners, Tony Kushner, writer of "Angels in America" and screenwriter of Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning "Lincoln", agreed with De Niro.

Kushner denounced Trump's presidency as "the Hitler mistake" that let a "borderline psychotic narcissist in the White House."

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