It wouldn’t be referred to as the Free World without democracy and dissent co-existing among the people. However, the US takes the thought a step further by having movie stars and business moguls battle it out in the public sphere. In the latest round of bouts, George Clooney and Donald Trump are battling it out in a clash of back-and-forth insults.
Being one of the best actors of this generation, George Clooney’s voice reaches the masses and has the power to influence them along the way. As such, when movie stars and celebrities like Clooney and Robert De Niro use every public platform at their disposal on every possible opportunity to call out the country’s leader, it is a dangerous but powerful statement.
George Clooney and Donald Trump enter the ring
As the President of the United States, Donald Trump is an all-encompassing figure of authority with little to gain from engaging in a petty fight with an actor. But George Clooney isn’t just any other A-lister. As one of the most influential, famous, wealthy, charitable, and respected celebrities of the 21st century, Clooney’s words hold weight.
As the President, Donald Trump lends further credibility to Clooney’s claims by responding in an aggressively forward manner. In a back-and-forth that has been ongoing since Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, both Clooney and Trump seem to be edging toward a climactic showdown in their war of words.
On Sunday’s 60 Minutes segment, the Oscar-winning actor called out the government’s escalating hostility against the press and the freedom of speech.
When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed. ABC has just settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration. And CBS News is in the process … We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations—to make journalists smaller. Governments don’t like the freedom of the press. They never have. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on. They don’t like the press.
Clooney’s words hold merit since his claims can be backed by stats. Trump’s attack on the media in recent years includes his $20 billion defamation lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes over a segment and ABC News’s $15 million settlement and statement of apology to Trump after his defamation lawsuit (via Deadline).
Donald Trump berates George Clooney on Truth Social
Donald Trump has recently taken to the Truth Social page to blast George Clooney after the airing of his 60 Minutes segment. He not only dismissed the actor’s claims but outright berated him by calling him a “second-rate movie star” and a “failed political pundit.”
Trump also harkened back to his lawsuit against 60 Minutes and insinuated that there is an ulterior motive behind the “now highly discredited 60 Minutes doing a total ‘puff piece’ on Goerge Clooney…” Among other things, Trump has also called for the 60 Minutes segment to be terminated following his defamation lawsuit.
In 2024, Donald Trump conducted a similar rant on Truth Social against Clooney after the actor wrote an op-ed piece on The New York Times ahead of the election. Trump claimed:
So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act. He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are. What does Clooney know about anything?… Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!
George Clooney’s latest appearance on 60 Minutes was in service of his Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck which opens on April 3, 2025. The stage adaptation is based on his critically acclaimed 2005 historical drama which was nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director (for Clooney), and Best Original Screenplay (again, for Clooney).
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