The long-running war of words between George Clooney and the White House has ignited again after the Oscar-winning actor criticised Donald Trump’s threat to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight”.

On Wednesday, in a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, Clooney said the US president had committed a war crime with his threat.

“Some say Donald Trump is fine,” the 64-year-old told the students at an event organised by the Clooney Foundation for Justice. “But if anyone says he wants to end a civilization, that’s a war crime. You can still support the conservative point of view but there must be a line of decency, and we must not cross it.”

In response, the White House communications director, Steven Cheung, told the Independent: “The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability.”

In a statement to Deadline on Wednesday, Clooney said: “Families are losing their loved ones. Children have been incinerated. The world’s economy is on a knife’s edge. This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling. I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there is intent to physically destroy a nation,’ as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. What is the administration’s defense? [besides calling me a failed actor which I happily agree with, having starred in Batman and Robin?].”

Clooney, a longtime Democratic supporter and donor, has been outspoken about his politics for decades, often framing his frankness as a moral responsibility born from being raised by his journalist father and his marriage to the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. In 2025 he made headlines when he wrote an op ed in the New York Times urging the then-president, Joe Biden, to drop out of the presidential race.

Despite the gulf between their politics, Clooney has spoken about once being on good terms with Trump before his presidency, telling Variety last year: “I knew him very well. He used to call me a lot, and he tried to help me get into a hospital once to see a back surgeon. I’d see him out at clubs and at restaurants. He’s a big goofball. Well, he was. That all changed.”

Trump, not known for having thick skin, often reacts to criticism that comes his way from Hollywood, a world he tried to enter via cameos and reality television. He has been particularly responsive to criticism from Clooney over the years, variously calling him a “second-rate movie star”, a “third-rate actor”, a “fake movie actor” who “never came close to making a great movie”, and a “backstabber”.

In January, Trump criticised France’s decision to grant the actor and his family French citizenship, calling the Clooneys “two of the worst political prognosticators of all time”.

“Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies,” the president added. “He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics.”

In response, and referring to the US midterm elections on 3 November, Clooney told the Hollywood Reporter: “I totally agree with the current president. We have to make America great again. We’ll start in November.”