Sean Penn compares Donald Trump’s Covid response to ‘gunning down vulnerable communities’

Actor said world was let down by ‘an obscene administration, humanly and politically’

Sean Penn says it felt like “vulnerable communities” were being “gunned down” from the White House as a result of Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, the actor and director was questioned about his own efforts to bring testing and vaccinations to people across the US as part of his Core (Community Organised Relief Effort) project.

“I don’t think that I can illuminate anything that shouldn’t be plain to the eye,” Penn said, per Deadline.

“We were – not only as a country, but as a world – let down and ultimately neglected, misinformed, had truth and reason assaulted under what was, in all terms, an obscene administration, humanly and politically.”

He continued: “When my team and I would come home from test and vaccination sites at night, particularly during the testing period during the Trump administration… it really felt like there was someone with a machine gun gunning down communities that were the most vulnerable from a turret at the White House.”

The Independent has contacted Trumps’ representatives for comment.

Penn is in Cannes to promote his film Flag Day, in which he stars as con artist John Vogel.

The 60-year-old’s daughter Dylan Penn plays his on-screen daughter, Jennifer.