Recommendations of the Editorial team
George Clooney responds to criticism from Donald Trump after he attacked the actor and his wife Amal Clooney because of their French citizenship.
Trump’s attack on Truth Social
Trump ranted on Truth Social after the news broke earlier this week, writing:
“George and Amal Clooney, two of the worst political forecasters of all time, have officially become citizens of France – a country that is unfortunately in the midst of a serious crime crisis caused by the absolutely terrible handling of immigration, much like ours under the sleepy Joe Biden.”
The President continued:
“Do you remember how, after the now-infamous debate, Clooney dumped Joe at a fundraising gala, only to throw his weight behind another brilliant candidate, Jamala(K!), who is now battling with the worst governors in the country to see who gets to lead the Democrats to their future defeat – including Tim Waltz and Gavin Newscum. Clooney got more attention for politics than for his very few and completely mediocre films. He wasn’t a movie star at all, just an average guy who was constantly over-thinking himself common sense in politics. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Clooney’s sarcastic response
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Clooney replied: “I completely agree with the current president. We must make America great again. We start in November.”
Earlier this week, the French Ministry of Justice confirmed that the Clooney family had received their naturalization certificates. The official documents were released over the weekend. George Clooney retains his American citizenship, while Amal – who was naturalized under her maiden name Amal Alamuddin – is a British-Lebanese citizen. The couple’s two children were born in London.
Life in France instead of Hollywood
The Clooneys spend a significant part of their lives in the south of France, where they purchased a property in 2021. The actor cited strict French data protection and privacy laws as the main reason.
“I was worried about raising our children in LA, in the culture of Hollywood,” he told Esquire. “I felt like they would never get a fair chance in life. In France – people don’t really care about fame. I don’t want them to be constantly afraid of paparazzi. I don’t want them to be compared to other people’s famous kids.”
Long-standing political feud
Trump and Clooney have been feuding verbally for years, and the actor is known for being vocal about politics and the state of the United States. Last year, he published an op-ed in The New York Times calling on then-President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. In November, Clooney confirmed he was behind the post, but thought it was a mistake for Kamala Harris to step in.
“We had a chance,” Clooney told “CBS Sunday Morning.” “As I wrote in the op-ed, I wanted an area code. Let’s get this done quickly and get started.”
Criticism of Kamala Harris and the election campaign
He added: “The mistake with Kamala was that she had to go against her own record. That’s very hard to do when the crux of the campaign is, ‘I’m not that person.’ This is difficult and she was given an extremely tough task. I honestly think it’s a mistake. But we are where we are now. They say we lost even more seats in the House of Representatives. So I don’t know. Not to say it would be to not speak the truth.”