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Actor George Clooney has hit back at comments from US President Donald Trump seemingly celebrating Clooney and his wife Amal’s adoption of French citizenship saying he also wanted to “make America great again” and that would start with the US midterm elections in November.
This week it emerged that the US-born Hollywood star, his human rights lawyer wife and their twins Ella and Alexander had become naturalised French citizens, after flagging the move in an October Esquire interview in which he said he was “worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood”.
Amal Clooney and George Clooney at the premiere of Jay Kelly at the Venice International Film Festival in August last year.Credit: Getty Images
The French government said the couple were granted citizenship because “they contribute, through their distinguished actions, to France’s international influence and cultural outreach”.
On Thursday (AEDT), Trump responded to the reports with a post on his Truth Social website.
“Good News! George and Amal Clooney, two of the worst political prognosticators of all time, have officially become citizens of France which is, sadly, in the midst of a major crime problem because of their absolutely horrendous handling of immigration,” Trump wrote.
In a long post, Trump also took aim the star’s intervention in the 2024 presidential race, in which Clooney withdrew support for then-incumbent and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump arrive for a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida this week.Credit: AP
“Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies. He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
On Friday (AEDT) Clooney responded to Trump’s post with a brief statement to Fox News.
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“I totally agree with the current president. We have to make America great again. We’ll start in November.”
Clooney appeared to be referencing the US midterm elections, during which all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be up for a vote, potentially giving the Democrats the opportunity to take control of the House once more.
Earlier war of words
The current spat between Cooney and Trump follows an earlier incident last year in which Clooney made remarks about the democratic role of the media on an episode of US network CBS’ 60 Minutes during an interview to promote the stage version of his and Grant Heslov’s 2005 film, Good Night, and Good Luck.
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In the stage version, Clooney plays veteran CBS journalist Edward Murrow, who took on influential US senator Joseph McCarthy, at the height of the “red scare” during the 1950s.
“When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed,” Clooney told 60 Minutes. “Governments don’t like the freedom of the press. They never have.”
Trump responded on Truth Social asking why CBS would do a “puff piece” on “a second-rate movie ‘star’ and failed political pundit”.
Clooney then said he was not fazed.
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“I don’t care. I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity.”
About that time, CBS was settling a lawsuit with Trump amid its parent company Paramount’s bid to be acquired by Sundance, which was later approved.
This week in a new Variety interview to promote his film Jay Kelly, Clooney took aim at CBS and the US ABC network for settling lawsuits brought by the president.
“If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go f--- yourself,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country,” Clooney told Variety.
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