George Clooney is back in the headlines after calling Donald Trump’s threat to Iran a “war crime.”
The 64-year-old Oscar winner was speaking to 3000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, on Wednesday. It was an event organized by the Clooney Foundation for Justice, when he took direct aim at the US president.
“Some say Donald Trump is fine, but if anyone says he wants to end a civilization, that’s a war crime. You can still support the conservative point of view but there must be a line of decency, and we must not cross it,” Clooney shared.
The White House fired back. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, told The Independent that
“The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability.”
Clooney wasn’t done. As per a report shared by Deadline, he released a statement responding to his acting roast.
“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,” he shared.
“Not for infantile name calling. I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there is intent to physically destroy a nation,’ as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. What is the administration’s defense? [besides calling me a failed actor which I happily agree with, having starred in Batman and Robin?].“
George Clooney and Trump were once on good terms
George Clooney and Donald Trump weren’t always enemies. According to a report shared by Variety, Clooney admitted last year that the two once had a surprisingly warm relationship.
“I knew him very well. 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.”
As per a report shared by The Guardian, George Clooney has been a longtime Democratic supporter and donor, framing his outspokenness as a moral responsibility shaped by his upbringing alongside his journalist father and his marriage to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. That commitment made headlines in 2025, when he wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging then-president Joe Biden to step aside from the presidential race.
Trump, for his part, hasn’t been subtle about his feelings. According to Us Weekly, when it emerged in January that George Clooney and Amal had received French citizenship after settling their family in Provence, France, Trump took to Truth Social.
“Good News! George and Amal Clooney, two of the worst political prognosticators of all time, have officially become citizens of France which is, sadly, in the midst of a major crime problem because of their absolutely horrendous handling of immigration, much like we had under Sleepy Joe Biden,” he wrote.
Trump went further, claiming Clooney:
“got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre movies,” in recent years, and claimed that “he wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics.”
George Clooney and Amal are parents to eight-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella.
Trump’s threat to Iran triggered a chain reaction from the Vatican to the Gulf
The dispute over the Strait of Hormuz took a dangerous turn on Easter Sunday, April 5, when Donald Trump threatened deadly consequences against the people of Iran. That threat set off a week that drew in Iran’s military, the White House, and eventually the Vatican.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards didn’t stay quiet. As per a report shared by The Guardian, they signalled readiness to escalate, threatening to retaliate “beyond the region” and
“to deprive the US and its allies of oil and gas in the region for years,”
a warning that pointed squarely at oil and gas production facilities across the Gulf and raised the prospect of a global recession. By Tuesday, JD Vance had added fresh concern with a remark that US forces had tools they
“so far haven’t decided to use.”
The White House stepped in quickly, releasing a statement insisting nuclear weapons were not being considered.
Pope Leo XIV entered the conversation late Tuesday. He described Trump’s threats as “truly unacceptable” and called on people worldwide to pressure their political leaders toward peace.
“Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable,” he said.
The pope, who is now 70 years old, went further, calling attacks on civilian infrastructure
“against international law, but … also a sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction the human beings are capable of, and that we all want to work for peace.”
The US and Iran have since reportedly reached a conditional two-week ceasefire.
Edited by Nimisha