{"id":223296,"date":"2026-01-02T10:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:58:07","slug":"george-clooney-hits-back-at-donald-trump-after-france-grants-him-citizenship-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223296\/","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney hits back at Donald Trump after France grants him citizenship \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Clooney<\/a> has lashed out at US president Donald Trump<\/a> for criticising France\u2019s decision to grant the Hollywood actor and his family French citizenship.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old Oscar winner, his wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney<\/a>, and their two children became French citizens earlier this month after living on a property in southern France<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n

Mr Clooney has hailed French privacy laws that have kept his family largely protected from international media intrusion, as well as the opportunity to raise his children outside Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump, whose administration has backed anti-immigration parties in Europe, wrote on Truth Social that France was welcome to the Ocean\u2019s Eleven star, who is a long-term Democrat supporter, fundraiser and a vocal critic of the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood 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,\u201d Mr Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cClooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies,\u201d the president added. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0George Clooney: \u2018We live on a farm in France. I was worried about raising our kids in LA\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Referring to the US midterm elections on November 3rd, Mr Clooney told the Hollywood Reporter in response: \u201cI totally agree with the current president. We have to make America great again. We\u2019ll start in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news that Mr Clooney and his family are becoming French came before language requirements for citizenship being toughened for everyone else under new immigration rules from January 1st.<\/p>\n

A junior member of French president Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government had also criticised the decision to award passports despite Mr Clooney speaking poor French.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I understand the feeling of some French people of a double standard,\u201d Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a junior interior minister, told the France Info radio station. \u201cWe need to be careful about the message we\u2019re sending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her boss, interior minister Laurent Nunez, and the foreign ministry defended the decision.<\/p>\n

The civil code states that \u201cFrench nationality may be conferred by naturalisation, upon the proposal of the minister of foreign affairs, to any French-speaking foreigner who applies for it and who contributes through their distinguished service to France\u2019s influence and the prosperity of its international economic relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the new immigration rules, applicants will need a certificate showing they have a level of French that could get them into a French university. They will also have to pass a civic knowledge test.<\/p>\n

But Mr Clooney has conceded that his French remains poor. \u201cI love the French culture, your language, even if I\u2019m still bad at it after 400 days of courses,\u201d the actor told RTL radio \u2013 in English \u2013 in December.<\/p>\n

His wife, an international human rights lawyer and dual UK-Lebanese national, speaks fluent French.<\/p>\n

Mr Clooney bought the Domaine du Canadel, a former wine estate, near the Provence town of Brignoles, in 2021. He said it is where his family is \u201chappiest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Nunez, the interior minister, said he was \u201cvery happy\u201d with the actor and his family becoming French, saying the country was lucky to have them.<\/p>\n

The French foreign ministry said the passport allocation for the Clooneys \u201cmeets the conditions set by law\u201d for naturalisation, having \u201cfollowed a rigorous procedure including security investigations, regulatory naturalisation interviews at the prefecture, and the payment of tax stamps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clooneys \u201ccontribute through their distinguished service to France\u2019s international influence and cultural prestige\u201d through the actor\u2019s role in the film industry, the ministry added, which would \u201conly contribute to maintaining and promoting France\u2019s position in this essential economic sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amal Clooney is \u201ca renowned lawyer\u201d who \u201cregularly collaborates with academic institutions and international organisations based in France,\u201d the ministry added.<\/p>\n

About 48,800 people acquired French nationality by decree in 2024, according to interior ministry figures.<\/p>\n

Mr Clooney is not alone in wanting a French passport: Hollywood director Jim Jarmusch announced on Friday that he was also applying, telling French radio that he wanted \u201ca place to where I can escape the United States\u201d. \u2013 Guardian <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Clooney has lashed out at US president Donald Trump for criticising France\u2019s decision to grant the Hollywood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14888,969,93,1814,11196,61,60,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-223296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-amal-clooney","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-george-clooney","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}