George Clooney has delivered a scathing message to Joe Biden. Where does it leave his election bid?

Welcome back to your weekly update on US politics, where North America bureau chief Jade Macmillan catches you up on the biggest developments in America as we hurtle towards election day in November.

Talk about a star-studded affair. 

At a theatre in Los Angeles last month, Hollywood A-listers George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbara Streisand took the stage in a public show of support for Joe Biden. 

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel interviewed the president and his former boss, Barack Obama, as a crowd of supporters watched on.  

It was a fundraising success, reportedly bringing in a record $US30 million ($44 million) for the Biden campaign.

But just a few weeks after the event took place, Clooney has called on the president to withdraw from November's election. 

"It's devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe "big F-ing deal" Biden of 2010," the actor wrote in the New York Times.

"He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

Biden has remained defiant in the wake of his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting it was a "bad night" but that he's still the best person for the job.

And he may well dismiss Clooney as one of the "elites" that he's accused of trying to push him out of the race.

(Asked for comment on the Clooney piece, the White House referred reporters to the letter the president sent congressional Democrats earlier this week, urging them to unite behind him.)

But the actor's high-profile intervention is deeply damaging on several fronts. 

Clooney is one of the relatively small group of people who can speak first-hand about a recent personal interaction with Biden. 

And as a lifelong Democrat who "loves" Biden, he argues the party is "so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we've opted to ignore every warning sign".

Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn't see what we just saw. 

We're all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we've opted to ignore every warning sign. 

The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. 

As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.

Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. 

Nancy Pelosi hints at a new deadline

The president had been hoping to use this week's gathering of NATO leaders in Washington to reset the narrative over his political future. 

"Come listen. See what they say," he said of travelling European allies in his recent make-or-break TV interview, arguing the summit was a good way to "judge" him. 

Biden sought to project a message of unity and strength, using his opening remarks to highlight NATO's expansion in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

"Again and again, at critical moments, we chose unity over disunion, progress over retreat, freedom over tyranny, and hope over fear," he said.

But the following morning, one of the biggest Democratic names on Capitol Hill appeared to put him on notice. 

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the few people thought to carry the political weight to influence Biden's decision-making, described his NATO speech as "absolutely spectacular".

However, when she was asked whether she supported his candidacy, she said it was "up to the president to decide if he is going to run" — a call he insists he's already made.

"We're all encouraging him to make that decision. Because time is running short," she said, suggesting anxious Democrats should wait until after the summit to air their concerns.

"Let's just hold off whatever you're thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don't have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week."

On Wednesday, Earl Blumenauer became the ninth Democratic member from the lower house of Congress to call on Biden to end his re-election campaign, saying he should not be the Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden's next big test could be a rare, solo press conference he's expected to hold on Thursday, local time. 

His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has faced fiery media briefings all week, as journalists interrogated White House talking points on Biden's previous missteps and demanded answers to new questions. 

Two weeks to the day since the debate, the president will once again come under enormous pressure to convince voters – and his party – that he shouldn't stand aside.

Revelling in Biden chaos, Trump tries to back away from Project 2025 

Every day that Biden's political crisis drags on is a win for his political opponent, and Trump has sought to make the most of it. 

The former president kept an uncharacteristically low profile in the debate's aftermath, allowing the divisions within the Democratic Party to consume the news cycle. 

But he's taken targeted swings at Biden in recent days, telling Fox News the president's "ego" would likely prevent him from withdrawing, and using a rally in Florida to mock the man he's nicknamed "Sleepy Joe".

Trump also set his sights on Biden's possible replacement, Vice-President Kamala Harris, criticising her record on the issue of immigration and arguing "someone even halfway competent" would have "bounced" the president from office years ago.

Trump is gearing up for next week's Republican National Convention, where he's set to be confirmed as the party's nominee, and he continues to tease his upcoming running mate announcement. 

But he's also tried to distance himself from a blueprint for a potential second term that's gained traction as a campaign message for Democrats. 

It's called Project 2025. Biden told his social media followers to google it earlier this week.

Project 2025 is a lengthy "presidential transition" plan, drafted by dozens of conservative organisations and a number of former Trump administration officials, outlining a major reshaping of the US government.

It proposes an expansion of presidential power, replacing public servants with political loyalists, and overhauling policy in areas such as climate change, education and reproductive rights. 

Biden's campaign has criticised Project 2025, which is led by the Heritage Foundation think tank, as a "far-right playbook for an extreme and dangerous administration".

And it accused Heritage president Kevin Roberts of threatening violence when he told the War Room podcast that the US was "in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be".

Trump's campaign has previously sought to characterise Project 2025 as nothing more than "recommendations" from "external allies", but the former president himself stepped in after the podcast came out, arguing he had "nothing to do with them".

"I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," he said on Truth Social.

Trump also made his mark on the Republican National Committee's (RNC) draft 2024 platform, which spells out the party's policy priorities and is expected to be adopted at the upcoming convention. 

What would usually be a much longer document was scaled back to 16 pages, headed "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

And for the first time in decades, the RNC has not called for a national ban on abortion – instead reflecting Trump's position that the issue should be left to the states in the wake of the fall of Roe v Wade. 

Some anti-abortion campaigners have criticised the decision, with Trump's former vice-president Mike Pence saying the platform was a "profound disappointment". 

But Trump blamed Republicans who he said "poorly handled" the issue of abortion for failing to deliver anticipated wins in the 2022 midterm elections, and he's trying to prevent a repeat. 

In case you missed it: Watching Whitmer

The ongoing speculation over Biden's future has prompted plenty of discussion about who might become the Democratic candidate if he bows out. 

In a case of extraordinary timing, one of the names most often mentioned – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer – started promoting her new memoir this week.

Unlike South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whose chances of becoming Trump's running mate sank after her autobiography revealed she'd killed a dog, one account of Whitmer's book said its "biggest revelation" was about a shark she had tattooed on her shoulder. 

But writing a memoir has long been a sign of higher political ambition in the US, and the promotional tour for True Gretch has only intensified chatter around her future. 

Whitmer, for her part, insists she's backing the president.

"The field is set," she told MSNBC. 

"Joe Biden is the only person who is determining whether or not he stays in this race. 

"He has made his decision, he's communicated that decision, and it is time to get going."