![\"PALM](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JVHJ0J_AFP__20251229__2253972531__v3__HighRes__PresidentTrumpMeetsWithIsraeliPmNetanyahuAtH_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nUS President Donald Trump.
\nPhoto: Joe Raedle \/ Getty Images \/ AFP\n<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump says Paris was welcome to Hollywood star George Clooney after the actor got French citizenship – and took the opportunity to bash France, too.<\/p>\n
Trump, whose administration has backed anti-immigration parties in Europe, said key ally France had a “horrendous” problem with crime and immigration.<\/p>\n
An official decree seen by AFP on Monday showed that 64-year-old Oscar winner Clooney, his wife Amal Alamuddin Clooney and their two children had become French citizens.<\/p>\n
“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,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.<\/p>\n
In one of a string of posts on New Year’s Eve, Trump added that France’s alleged problems were “much like we had under Sleepy Joe Biden”, his Democratic predecessor.<\/p>\n
Oceans Eleven star Clooney is a long-term Democratic supporter and fundraiser, and a vocal critic of Trump.<\/p>\n
In his social media post, Trump recalled the fact that the actor backed Biden during the 2024 US presidential election but then “dumped” him becoming concerned about the Democrat’s age during a fundraising event he hosted.<\/p>\n
“Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies. He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics,” Trump said.<\/p>\n
Clooney’s newly acquired citizenship has also raised hackles in France.<\/p>\n
A junior member of President Emmanuel Macron’s government Wednesday criticised Clooney getting his passport despite speaking poor French, saying the move suggested a “double standard”.<\/p>\n
The news comes ahead of language requirements for citizenship being toughened for everyone else under new immigration rules from 1 January.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump. Photo: Joe Raedle \/ Getty Images \/ AFP US President Donald Trump says Paris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[48,430,47,156,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-210946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-current-affairs","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-podcasts","17":"tag-public-radio","18":"tag-radio-new-zealand","19":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}