Two-time Oscar-winner George Clooney appears to be completely unfazed by President Donald Trump calling him a “second-rate movie star and failed political pundit.”
“I don’t care,” the 63-year-old actor said of the comment while shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity.”
Clooney addressed the president’s taunt during a Monday interview with CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King. He knows people will criticize him for speaking out, and that doesn’t bother him, the actor said.
“That’s their right to do it, and it’s my right to say the other side,” he said.
The president’s comment was a response to anti-Trump comments Clooney made during an episode of 60 Minutes that aired last month, according to King.
The actor jokingly responded “That’s true” to the “second-rate movie star” part of the taunt as the anchor explained the situation during the Monday interview.
Clooney is a long-time Democratic Party donor, but he received criticism last year when The New York Times published an op-ed in which he urged then-President Joe Biden to leave the 2024 presidential race following his poor performance in the first debate of the season.
The actor appeared on CBS Mornings Monday to talk about a new Broadway play he is starring in in which he portrays legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.