George Clooney compares Trump’s ‘insane’ and ‘absurd’ presidency to new series Catch-22

Hollywood star directed, produced and appears in the adaptation of the 1961 novel

George Clooney has drawn comparisons with his new TV miniseries Catch-22 and Donald Trump’s presidency.

The Hollywood actor, whose new project is based on the 1961 Joseph Heller novel of the same name, plays Lieutenant Scheisskopf in the series, and also produced and directed.

Speaking to Sky News, he drew several parallels with the characters and themes of the book, and today’s fraught political climate.

“We have a 74-year-old president who wishes we were still in the 1950s, which was good if you were a white guy,” he said.

“Part of the idea of a Catch-22 is that old white men are making decisions that young people are going to die for. And I think that that is something that we should argue about endlessly…

“And part of the reason you feel these waves of populism coming up is because there’s huge swaths of people that feel like they are fighting against a system that they can’t possibly win.”

Clooney, who grew up during the time of anti-Vietnam war protests in the Sixties and Seventies, said he believes that “as a citizen, it’s your right and oftentimes your responsibility to question your government”.

Especially, he says, when the people sent to the front line are “18-year-old kids who don’t question authority”.

Asked why he felt the show was relevant over half a century after the book upon which it is based was published, Clooney said he felt these “insane” times were well-suited to resurface Catch-22’s political satire, “to remind us these things are temporary and are cyclical”.

Catch-22 airs on Thursday 20 June at 9pm on Channel 4.