George Clooney: US will be fine despite 'New York beast' Trump

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Apr 25, 2025

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NEW YORK — Academy Award winner George Clooney is no Donald Trump fan, but he doesn’t seem too worried about the Queens native’s presidency.

“It’s funny because he’s just a New York beast,” Clooney said during a Variety “Actors on Actors” interview with fellow Broadway star Patti LuPone. “We’ve all known him for 30 years, and he was just a guy chasing women. But whatever. It’s fine. We’re going to get through it. ”

LuPone seemed less optimistic about the state of the nation than Clooney, who reminded her that 1968 saw the Vietnam War raging out of control, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and cities being burned by rioters. He said 2025 is “not nearly as violent.”

According to the 63-year-old actor, who recently made his Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow at the Winter Garden Theatre’s presentation of “Good Night, and Good Luck,” Trump is a “demagogue” and most concerns people have with his administration will go away when he’s no longer on the world stage.

“He’s charismatic,” Clooney conceded. “There’s no taking that away from him. He’s a television star.”

Clooney offered a similarly dismissive take on “dumb goofball” Trump during a 2020 SiriusXM interview with Howard Stern.

“He was the guy that came up to us at the Stone Rose and sat at our table when he wasn’t invited and then he’d say ‘What’s the name of the girl, the waitress, the cocktail waitress?'” Clooney recalled. “He used to be ‘that’ guy.”

Trump last month called Clooney “a second rate movie ‘star,’ and failed political pundit” in a social media post.

While Clooney isn’t going to win over many Trump supporters, he may be even less popular with fans of former President Joe Biden. The former “E.R.” actor penned a July opinion piece for the New York Times calling for the then 81-year-old Democratic leader to end his reelection bid so a younger candidate could challenge Trump.

“The one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney wrote.

Biden dropped out of the race 11 days later. He was replaced by former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated in November.

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