Oscar-winning actor George Clooney did not hold back when sharing his thoughts on Donald Trump‘s administration.
trump Fight With Hollywood not Over — as gloves come off for him and hegseth
Clooney, 65, is among the many Hollywood figures that have spoke out against the 80-year-old president and his polarizing policies.
He went off the deep end and completely humiliated Trumpp and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth when asked about the state of politics.
The A-lister took part in a panel at the 2026 Venice Film Festival on Sept. 2. A reporter asked the “Ocean’s Eleven” cast member about the present state of American politics.
After expressing his optimism about the future, Clooney articulated that the country is “in a moment of time that’s unfortunate.”
He then recalled the political turmoil of the 1960s, specifically mentioning the assassinations of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Democratic politician Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
After that, Clooney turned his attention to modern-day America. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipient offered a disparaging description of Trump’s government.
“There’s a great word: kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people,” Clooney said. “I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we’ll get through it.”
Clooney also focused on the Democrats possibly winning the upcoming midterm elections, which could result in a “check-and-balance” to Trump’s dictatorial impulses.
Trump was not the only Republican to catch heat from the “E/R” alum. Clooney also called out the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“The idea that cruelty is the base, that being cruel and unkind is part of the fun of all of this,” Clooney complained about Trump’s MAGA movement.
He continued, “You see the Secretary of Defense just tweeted out a picture about women from the military in Canada. And you’re going, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”
“Where’s the sense of decency in all of this? And I’m ashamed of all of that. But we will get through it. We will come out better on the other side,” the showbiz veteran stated.
Hegseth, 46, has been a loyal soldier for Trump since the Senate confirmed him to run the Defense Department in January 2025.
The former “Fox & Friends Weekend” television host backed up his boss in the president’s ongoing feud with Canada by trolling the nation’s military.
Trump’s trade war with one of America’s closest allies created headline-grabbing animosity between the two countries’ leaders.
Hegseth’s Sept. 1-dated post on X making fun of two female Canadian cadets ignited more backlash. Clooney explicitly blasting the SecDef in Italy further fueled the tension.
Footage of Clooney’s “kakistocracy” comments about the Trump administration spread across the internet. Critics of the president co-signed the Casamigos Tequila founder’s sentiments.
“Wow!! Clooney said that?” exclaimed a Clooney supporter in response to Variety’s social media pages.
Two others called it an “Accurate description!” while others wrote, “Clooney… bravo” and “Omg I love him…and i love that word…and he is right!!”
Another person who agreed said, “The problem is most of us knew this before Trumps second term.”
However, Clooney’s swipe at Trump’s administration quickly came with some blowback. His celebrity status gave critics plenty of ammunition.
“I remember a time when I cared what George Clooney thought. Oh, wait, no I didn’t,” someone on X tweeted.
Clooney has been very outspoken about politics throughout his career.
The self-described “lifelong Democrat” endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Biden, who is now 83, went on to defeat the then-incumbent Trump that year.
By 2024, Clooney was vocal about not wanting Biden to run for re-election. His 900-word New York Times op-ed played a part in Democrats pushing Biden out of the race.
Biden’s disastrous debate that June against Trump left many of his Democratic backers, including Clooney, concerned that he was no longer fit to serve a second term.
The fallout from Biden’s troubling performance caused him to drop out of the race. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris was chosen as his replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” Clooney wrote in The New York Times.
He also added, “We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign.”
Despite turning on Biden just five months before ballots were cast, Clooney still had to witness Trump overcome Harris in the 2024 election.
The years-long bad blood between Clooney and Trump continued when the MAGA chief returned to the White House in 2025.
Trump’s decision to order military strikes against Iran in February 2026 set off another round in the heated back-and-forth with the “Jay Kelly” movie star.
Clooney slammed Trump for threatening that “a whole civilization will die” amid the Iran war. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung clapped back by calling Clooney’s acting ability “terrible.”
