"I don't care": George Clooney responds to Donald Trump calling him a "fake movie actor"

After Donald Trump called George Clooney a "fake movie actor," the actor responded. While on a press run to promote his Broadway debut in Good Night and Good Luck, Clooney visited CBS Mornings, which aired on Monday, April 21, 2025.

While on the show, host Gayle King asked him about Trump's last year's comment, calling him a "fake movie actor" and a "second-rate movie star," to which George Clooney said that he wasn't bothered. He said:

"I don't care. I've known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the President of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity."

Clooney said that he understood that other people have the right to talk about him and that he also has the right to express his opinions, although it could rub other people the wrong way. He added:

"I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that...people will criticize that. Elon Musk has weighed in [about me]. That's their right. It's my right to say the other side."

Donald Trump's criticism of Clooney last year came after the Oceans 11 actor published an op-ed for The New York Times urging Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. While he admitted in the op-ed that Biden helped save democracy before, he thinks that the Democrats will have a better shot at beating Trump if Biden steps aside, giving way to an alternate nominee.

In response, Trump called him a "fake movie actor" on Truth Social. He also branded the actor and Joe Biden "rats" via a post on Truth Social in July 2024.

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George Clooney recently defended his decision to go against Joe Biden last year, calling it his "civic duty"

Besides staying unbothered by Donald Trump's comments about him, George Clooney said that he's also at peace receiving criticism from people after he went against Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential election. He sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview via The Daily Beast, published on April 16, 2025, to defend his last year's I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee op-ed.

When Tapper called his New York Times op-ed "brave," the Hollywood actor wasn't sure if he would call it that, but he considered it his "civic duty." He said:

"I don't know if it was brave. It was a civic duty because I found that people on my side of the street, you know, I'm a Democrat in Kentucky, so I get it, when I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth, I thought that was time to..."

The Wolfs actor also admitted that some people are still mad at him for what he did and wrote, but according to George Clooney, "That's OK." He said that it's part of freedom of speech, saying that one can't demand to have it and also demand that they don't say bad or negative things.

The Hollywood actor further said that as much as people have the right to critique him, he also has the right to voice out his criticisms of them.

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George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck is now playing at Winter Garden Theater through June 8, 2025.