George Clooney is a prominent and longtime fundraiser for the Democratic Party. In July 2024, he published a much-noticed op-ed in the New York Times, urging then U.S. President Joe Biden to step back as the Democratic nominee after Biden’s disastrous performance in a TV debate with Trump. Less than two weeks after, Biden withdrew from the race.
Trump referenced that episode in his post, mocking Clooney’s political judgment. “Remember when Clooney … dumped Joe during a fundraiser, only to go onto the side of another stellar candidate, Jamala(K!), who is now fighting it out with the worst governor in the Country, including Tim Waltz, Gavin Newscum, for who is going to lead the Democrats to their future defeat,” he wrote.
The fundraiser Trump mentioned was hosted by Clooney in support of Biden’s campaign. According to a book by two U.S. journalists, Biden did not recognize the actor at the event.
Trump continued his attack by dismissing Clooney’s film carreer. “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 wrote.
According to the actor, Trump and Clooney know each other since before Trump entered politics. In a BBC interview in 2021, after Trump’s first and before his second term, Clooney said about him: “He was just this knucklehead … He was just a guy, who was chasing girls … that’s all he was.”