Amal Clooney: Trump ‘Vilifies the Media’ and Makes Journalists ‘Vulnerable to Abuse’

Amal Clooney, the British-Lebanese human rights attorney married to Hollywood star George Clooney, issued veiled criticism of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, claiming his frequent self-defense against partisan media attacks leaves reporters open to “abuse” worldwide, the Daily Mail reports.

Appearing alongside Jeremy Hunt, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth, Clooney lamented what she described as the growing threat to journalists’ personal safety. Though she did not explicitly name President Trump, the lawyer told the audience: “The country of James Madison has a leader today who vilifies the media, making honest journalists all over the world more vulnerable to abuse.”

During a question and answer period, Clooney once again took a veiled shot at the president.

“What happens in a country like Australia or the UK or the US will be looked at by every other leader in the world and potentially used as an excuse to clamp down on journalists and I think journalists all over the world are less safe if the rhetoric or even policies or laws in states that are supposed to be free are actually a threat in those countries,” said Clooney.

This is not the first instance in which Clooney has criticized President Trump’s media approach.

Speaking before the United Nations Correspondents Association Awards in December 2018, Clooney said President Trump has given regimes in North Korea and Turkey a “green light” to murder journalists.

As part of Vanderbilt University’s 2017 commencement activities, Clooney called on students to be brave in the face of purported attacks on the free press from the White House.

“At a time when the LGBT community in every continent struggles for equal rights, freedom from imprisonment and even death, we need courage,” she said. “At a time when more journalists are in prison around the world than at any time in the last three decades, and even here at home the media is under attack from the White House, we need courage. And at a time when our politicians try to conflate the terms refugee and terrorist and make us fear one another, we need courage.”

The Clooneys, estimated to have a net worth of $500 million, have donated to multiple left-wing advocacy groups.