George Clooney launched a scathing attack on the US administration, branding those in charge ‘the least qualified people’ and slamming what he said was a complete absence of ‘decency’. 

Speaking on the opening day of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, Clooney said: ‘We’ve had some other difficult times but this is one of them. 

‘There is a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people. 

‘I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now but we will get through it.

‘We will have an election in November that should be a check and balance and then in 2028, with any luck, we will have some restoration.’ 

The Oscar-winning star went on to denounce President Donald Trump’s administration as ‘cruel’, arguing that basic standards of decency had disappeared from public life.

‘The idea that cruelty is the base, that being cruel and unkind is part of the fun of all this,’ Clooney told press, in the latest of a string of attacks the actor has made against the running of the US. 

‘You see what the secretary of defense just tweeted out a picture about women in the military in Canada and you’re going, “What is wrong with you?”

George Clooney attended the ‘Ink’ Screening and 2026 Opening Red Carpet during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Wednesday

President Donald Trump reacted while answering a reporters question during a healthcare affordability event in the Oval Office at the White House on Monday

‘”Where is the sense of decency in all this?” I’m ashamed of all of that but we will get through it and we will come out better on the other side.’

Clooney drew on a tweet by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appearing to mock the physical appearance of an overweight female Canadian soldier presenting a medal at a youth camp. 

On Monday night, Hegseth posted the image from a cadet training center in British Columbia with the caption: ‘This is real’.

Calling himself an optimist, Clooney said he remembered living through dark times in the country’s history – which he likened to today. 

‘I’m old enough to have been through 1968 in the States when every city in the United States was set on fire and we lost Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in the same year,’ he said.

‘There was tons of violence. The Capitol was surrounded with tanks.

‘We’ve had some other difficult times, but this is one of them.’

Clooney was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. 

George Clooney said ‘the least qualified people’ are running the US at a press conference on Wednesday and slammed a lack of ‘decency’ as he condemned Trump’s administration

Clooney attended the Venice Festival with wife Amal, where he was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

The film star and the US President have been locked in a public feud for years. 

This has included clashing over the conflict in the Middle East, in which Clooney accused Trump of a ‘war crime’ and the US President retaliating with a blow to the star’s acting skills. 

In April, the actor told Italian high school students that Trump committed a war crime when he threatened that ‘a whole civilization [would] die’ in Iran if the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz was not resolved.

‘The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability,’ the White House said in a statement to The Independent on Wednesday, via Communications Director Steven Cheung.

Clooney hit out at the statement, telling Us Weekly on Wednesday: ‘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.’

Clooney also noted that 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?]’ he questioned.

The president previously called the actor a failed movie star in December and one of the ‘worst political prognosticators of all time’. 

Meanwhile, also in April, Clooney’s wife Amal was reportedly ‘cautioned’ by the Foreign Office that legal advice she provided in a war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could mean she may be denied entry into the US.

This came under sanctions imposed by Trump, which would affect the international human rights attorney. 

The couple are said to spend most of their time at their homes in the UK and Italy, although they also have property in the US.