Published on
“This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling.”
Prior to the shaky two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, Donald Trump received widespread criticism for threatening to completely obliterate Iran in shocking social media messages.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump declared on his Truth Social platform hours before his set deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
One high-profile celebrity who has spoken against Trump’s language and actions is celebrated actor George Clooney, who condemned Trump’s threat while addressing high school students at an event in Italy’s Cuneo.
“Some say Donald Trump is fine. But if anyone says he wants to end a civilization, that’s a war crime,” said Clooney.
He added: “You can still support the conservative point of view, but there must be a line of decency, and we must not cross it.”
This prompted a snide remark from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who told British online newspaper The Independent: “The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability.”
Understandably, this did not sit well with Clooney, who responded by telling Deadline: “Families are losing their loved ones. Children have been incinerated. The world’s economy is on a knife’s edge. This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling.”
He continued: “I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there’s intent to physically destroy a nation’, as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. What is the administration’s defence? (Besides calling me a failed actor which I happily agree with having starred in Batman and Robin ?).”
This is not the first time there have been back and forths between Clooney and the Trump administration.
Trump has previously described the two-time Oscar and three-time Golden Globe winner as a failed movie star, posting on Truth Social: “Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies. (…) He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics.”
Trump also criticised the fact that Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney recently became French citizens.
Clooney may soon be joined by the award-winning American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who has expressed his desire to become a French citizen. Speaking to France Inter radio, the 73-year-old director who won the Golden Lion award in Venice last year with his latest work, Father Mother Sister Brother revealed that he’s beginning the process to obtain French nationality in order to “escape from the United States.”
“I’d be very honoured to have a French passport”, he added.