Actor George Clooney has singled out a fundamental hypocrisy of Donald Trump's administration: they're part of the "Hollywood elite" that their supporters supposedly reject.
The label, a sure-bet on conservative blogs and alt-right Twitter, has become a regular throwaway among Trump's supporters, so often levelled at outspoken celebrities as a way of deriding their largely liberal views.
Appearing on the French TV program Recontres de Cinema, Clooney – who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton at the 2016 US election – flipped the accusation while defending Meryl Streep's anti-Trump acceptance speech at last month's Golden Globes.
"This is the part that makes me a little crazy. When Meryl spoke, everyone on that one side was like, 'Well, Hollywood elitist, Hollywood speaking'," he said.
"Donald Trump has 22 acting credits," Clooney said, referencing the president's cameos on everything from Home Alone 2 to The Nanny and Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
"He collects $US120,000 ($156,000) a year from a Screen Actor's Guild pension fund. He is a Hollywood elitist."
"Steve Bannon is a failed film writer and director. That's the truth, that's what he's done," he added, turning his attention to Trump's controversial chief strategist.
Bannon's pre-political forays into Hollywood are well documented. Before directing documentaries on conservative heroes like Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin, he was producing festival-bait like Julie Taymor's Titus and The Indian Runner by that other famous liberal "Hollywood elite", Sean Penn.
"[Bannon] wrote a Shakespearean rap musical about the LA riots that he couldn't get made, you know, which is a shock," Clooney mocked.
"He made a lot of money off Seinfeld. He's elitist – Hollywood. That's the reality, if you want to look at it that way."
"So I look at when people say Meryl shouldn't speak up – of course she should speak up," he added, defending his Fantastic Mr Fox co-star.
"She has every right to speak up. She's an American citizen, and she was an American citizen long before she was an icon."
It's not the first time that Clooney – who's currently directing the crime thriller Suburbicon, starring Matt Damon – has hit back at Trump and his administration.
"I didn't vote for him, I don't support him, and I don't think he's the right choice," the actor said when asked to comment following Trump's infamous "over-rated" Twitter quip at Streep.
