George Clooney has discussed his once-friendly relationship with Donald Trump, saying that the US president used to be a “big goofball”.
Clooney, 64, has long been an outspoken liberal, and he made headlines last year after he wrote an op-ed urging flailing Democrat Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, in the hope of Kamala Harris launching a successful campaign to save the country from Trump.
Trump has also launched verbal attacks on Clooney, calling him a “second-rate movie star” and a “backstabber”.
Now, in a new interview, Clooney has opened up about how he used to be on good terms with businessman and former Apprentice star Trump, long before he became a politician.
“I knew him very well,” the Jay Kelly star told Variety. “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.”
In the same interview, Clooney – who has been playing journalist Edward R Murrow in a recent stage adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck – criticised Trump’s battles with the US media.
Referring to the recent CBS News and ABC News settlements with Trump, Clooney said: “If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go f*** yourself,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country. That’s simply the truth.”
Earlier this year, prominent Democrat donor Clooney said “everybody” worries about being targeted by Trump’s administration, but added that won’t stop him from standing up for what he believes in.
“Sure, everybody worries about it,” Clooney told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “But you know, if you spend your life worrying about things, then you won’t do things.”
“I want to be able to look at my kids in the eye and say where we stood and what we did at certain times in history, and I have no problem with that,” he said.
It emerged last week that Clooney, his wife Amal and their eight-year-old twins have been granted French citizenship.
Earlier this year, Clooney talked about leaving Los Angeles for a quieter life in France and why he felt that it worked out better for his children.
“I was worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood. I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life. France, they kind of don’t give a s*** about fame,” he told Esquire in October.
“I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
Clooney and his wife bought a house in Provence for $8.3m in 2021. The sprawling 425-acre estate reportedly consists of an 18th-century mansion with a pool, tennis court, vast gardens, and an ornamental lake.
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