President Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on actor George Clooney, labeling him a “second-rate movie star” and “failed political pundit” following the Hollywood actor’s appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
The 63-year-old Hollywood actor drew Trump’s ire after making critical comments about government influence over the media during his interview.
Trump swiftly responded on Truth Social, questioning why “the now highly-discredited 60 Minutes” would feature Clooney in what he described as a “total puff piece.”
“He fought hard for Sleepy Joe’s election, and then, right after the Debate, dumped him like a dog,” Trump wrote, referring to Clooney’s public withdrawal of support for President Biden last summer.
Trump added that Clooney later pushed “all out for ‘Kamala,'” but soon realized “this was not going to work out too well.”
During his 60 Minutes interview, Clooney defended his decision to publish a New York Times op-ed titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
When asked if he would still have written it knowing Trump would defeat Harris, Clooney replied, “Yeah, I’ll make it kinda easy. I was raised to tell the truth.”
The actor explained that after seeing Biden at a Hollywood fundraiser in June 2024, he was “surprised” by the president’s condition.
“I feel as if there was a lot of profiles and cowardice in my party through all of that, and I was not proud of that,” Clooney said, adding that he “believed I had to tell the truth.”
While reaffirming his personal fondness for Biden, Clooney admitted the president’s “obvious incapacities made it impossible to defend his record.”
The actor then pivoted to criticizing the current administration, comparing modern government actions to McCarthyism of the 1950s. “We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations to make journalists smaller,” Clooney stated.
“Governments don’t like the freedom of the press. They never have,” he continued. “And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on.”
Clooney specifically referenced ABC News’ recent $15 million settlement with Trump’s presidential foundation to resolve a defamation suit over claims made by George Stephanopoulos regarding the E. Jean Carroll case.
He also mentioned Trump’s ongoing $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News, which alleges the network deliberately edited Kamala Harris’ October interview to disadvantage Trump in the presidential election.
The FCC subsequently released the unedited version, revealing CBS News aired just 20 minutes of their hour-long interview.
The Daily Mail reported that the legal battle continues as Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr considers whether to advance a proposed merger between CBS parent company Paramount and Skydance.
When asked about parallels between the historic Murrow-McCarthy confrontation and today’s media landscape, Clooney called it a “fight for the ages,” pointing to recent controversies at major news outlets.
The outlet further noted that at the Los Angeles Times, staff are openly protesting the paper’s increasingly right-leaning owner, while Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has sparked internal outrage by announcing plans to overhaul the Opinion page to focus on “personal liberties and free markets.”
Longtime columnist Ruth Marcus recently resigned, lamenting that journalistic freedoms were being “dangerously eroded.”
Clooney emphasized the media’s responsibility: “When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed.”
The Daily Mail highlighted that the actor’s comments follow his recent appearance on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, where he addressed Democratic losses in the 2024 election with a sardonic reference to the January 6, 2021 Capitol incident: “Well I don’t know, what am I supposed to do? Storm the f***ing Capitol?”
Clooney closed with an unexpected message to the president despite his criticisms: “Good for you. I hope you do well because our country needs it, and we will meet you in 3.5 years and see where we go next.”
