Donald Trump has unleashed a fiery response to actor and filmmaker George Clooney after the Hollywood icon took aim at him in a recent 60 Minutes interview. Clooney, who has long been known for his political involvement and outspoken support for the Democratic Party, used his appearance on the CBS news program to reflect on the dangers facing modern journalism and the freedom of the press — a conversation that struck a nerve with the former president.
The 63-year-old Clooney, no stranger to voicing political opinions, spoke during a segment promoting his Broadway adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, a drama that examines the media’s role in confronting political fearmongering. The story, centered around the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow’s battle against Senator Joseph McCarthy, served as a historical lens for Clooney to critique current dynamics between politics and the press — especially under Trump’s leadership.
Clooney warned of troubling parallels between McCarthy’s anti-communist hysteria and the tactics he believes are being used now. “We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations to make journalists smaller,” he told CBS. His message was clear — he believes the independence of journalism is being threatened by political powers that aim to weaken its reach.
He elaborated that this wasn’t a partisan phenomenon, adding that governments, regardless of their ideology, have historically had an aversion to the press. “Governments don’t like the freedom of the press — they never have,” he said. “That goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on.”
The remarks weren’t made in a vacuum. Trump has an extensive history of conflict with major media networks. In fact, Clooney directly referenced a high-profile legal battle involving Trump and ABC News, which had previously made damaging statements about Trump being “liable for rape” — a claim that led to a defamation suit and, reportedly, a $15 million settlement, as cited by the BBC.
Trump has also filed an astronomical $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, alleging that its 60 Minutes segment involving Kamala Harris was intentionally edited to misrepresent him — another instance, in his view, of what he calls “election and voter interference.”
CBS, for its part, responded by standing behind its editorial decisions, defending the segment as constitutionally protected and asserting that Trump’s lawsuit attempts to punish a news organization for exercising its First Amendment rights. At the same time, Paramount, CBS’s parent company, is attempting to finalize a merger deal — a process that ironically must pass through the Federal Communications Commission, chaired by a Trump appointee.
Trump’s retaliation to Clooney’s televised critique came swiftly and sharply. Taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, he lashed out with a post brimming with sarcasm and fury.
“Why would the now highly discredited 60 Minutes be doing a total ‘puff piece’ on George Clooney, a second-rate movie ‘star,’ and failed political pundit,” Trump began. He went on to mock Clooney’s past political endorsements, accusing him of abandoning Joe Biden after the debates and then pivoting to Kamala Harris — only to quickly realize, in Trump’s words, “that was not going to work out too well.”
Trump even took aim at CBS’s election coverage, calling out a segment with Harris, accusing the network of “fraudulently inserting fake answers” and branding it one of the “most embarrassing and dishonest events in broadcast history.”
The former president closed his statement with a jab at Clooney’s publicist: “His press agent should be making a fortune!!!”
Clooney’s Broadway project couldn’t have come at a more pointed time. The play, like the original film, scrutinizes the dangers of political propaganda and the critical role the media plays in keeping power in check. Drawing a direct line between then and now, Clooney said the tactics used by Senator McCarthy, like holding up blank sheets of paper claiming to have lists of communist infiltrators, were an early form of what we now understand as “fake news.”
But today’s challenges, according to Clooney, are more complex and dangerous. “We now are at a place where we’ve found that it’s harder, and harder, and harder to discern the truth,” he said. “Facts are now negotiated.”
That closing remark encapsulates the heart of the tension between Clooney and Trump — one man’s fight for truth in media versus another man’s repeated claims that the media is the enemy. And with Clooney using the theater stage as his battleground, and Trump choosing his own social platform as his pulpit, the fight between politics and entertainment has never felt more intense or more personal.
