George Clooney has condemned Pete Hegseth’s recent social media repost of members of the Canadian cadet program. The Hollywood star branded the U.S. Defense Secretary’s behavior as cruel and devoid of decency while speaking at the Venice Film Festival.
George Clooney reacts to Pete Hegseth criticizing Canadian woman
Clooney addressed Hegseth’s controversial social media post when asked for his thoughts on the current state of the United States. “We’re at a moment in time that’s unfortunate,” he told reporters. The Academy Award-winning actor then spoke about Hegseth’s post. “You see what the Secretary of Defense just tweeted out? A picture about women in the military from Canada. You’re going, ‘What’s wrong with you? Where’s the sense of decency in all of this?'” Clooney said.
He did not mince words when summing up his reaction to the incident, saying he felt “ashamed” of the Defense Secretary’s conduct. For those unaware, earlier in the week, Pete Hegseth shared a photo of a member of the Vernon Cadets receiving an award from a cadet instructor, captioning it “this is real.” Critics quickly interpreted the post as an attempt to mock the physical appearance of the two people pictured, amid rising tensions between the United States and Canada over trade. The post was still live on Hegseth’s personal X account as of Thursday.
Clooney did not soften his criticism of the broader culture he believes the post represents. “You know, the idea that cruelty is the base that being cruel and unkind is part of the fun of all of this… I’m ashamed of that, but we’ll get through it,” he said. The Pentagon responded to the controversy by stating that Hegseth’s post “speaks for itself.”
The cadet and instructor targeted in Hegseth’s post belong to Canada’s national cadet program, which is overseen by the Canadian military and trains young people between the ages of 12 and 18.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
