George Clooney reflects on Donald Trump friendship: 'That all changed'

George Clooney is reflecting on a friendship from another era.

In a new interview with Variety published Tuesday, December 30, the Oscar-winning actor opened up about his past relationship with President Donald Trump, describing a time when the two were surprisingly close.

“I knew him very well,” Clooney, 64, said. “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.”

But that version of Trump, Clooney suggested, no longer exists. “He’s a big goofball,” he said, before adding, “Well, he was. That all changed.”

Clooney, who has long been outspoken about his political views, said the current climate has been a “trying” time for the country.

His comments came just days after Clooney and his wife, Amal, quietly reached a major milestone of their own. According to a naturalization decree published by French newspaper Journal Officiel on Saturday, December 27, the couple — along with their 8-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella — were granted French citizenship.

France has already become home base for the family. They own a sprawling farm in the south of the country, complete with 100 acres of grapevines and 1,200 olive trees, and also maintain homes in England and Italy.

Clooney has previously explained why raising his children away from Hollywood was a priority. “A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid, I hated the whole idea of it,” he told Esquire in October. “But now, for them, it’s like — they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life.”