George Clooney drew the ire of the White House this week after deeming President Donald Trump’s public rhetoric on Iran a “war crime.”
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform early Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die” if no deal between the U.S. and Iran could be reached by that evening. A two-week ceasefire between the two nations was agreed upon later that day, though foreign policy experts say its specifics are highly questionable.
Clooney, a longtime critic of Trump and the GOP at large, condemned the president’s threats while speaking at a Wednesday event for about 3,000 high school students in Italy, organized by the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
“Some say Donald Trump is fine. But if anyone says he wants to end a civilization, that’s a war crime,” he said, per Variety. “You can still support the conservative point of view, but there must be a line of decency, and we must not cross it.”
It didn’t take long for White House Communications Director Steven Cheung to clap back at Clooney’s remarks.
“The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability,” he wrote Wednesday on X, in response to Variety’s article.
Clooney, a 2005 Oscar winner for “Syriana,” wasn’t deterred, and doubled down on his initial criticisms in a lengthy statement to Deadline.
“Families are losing their loved ones. Children have been incinerated. The world’s economy is on a knife’s edge,” he said. “This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling. I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there is intent to physically destroy a nation,’ as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute.”
He concluded his statement with a bit of self-deprecating humor, adding: “What is the administration’s defense? [besides calling me a failed actor which I happily agree with having starred in ‘Batman and Robin’?]”
The “Ocean’s Eleven” actor’s Democratic politics have made him a frequent target of Trump’s social media attacks. After Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, were granted French citizenship last year, the president deemed the couple “two of the worst political prognosticators of all time.”
“Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies,” he wrote on Truth Social. “He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics.”
Interestingly, Clooney acknowledged being on friendly terms with Trump long before the real estate mogul and reality TV personality entered the political arena.
“I knew him very well,” Clooney told Variety in a separate interview last year. “He used to call me a lot, and he tried to help me get into a hospital once to see a back surgeon. I’d see him out at clubs and at restaurants. He’s a big goofball. Well, he was. That all changed.”
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