On Wednesday, The New York Times published a scathing essay written by Hollywood star George Clooney titled "I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee".

While calls for the ageing US president, whose frailties have been on show in recent public outings, to step aside for the upcoming November presidential elections have been flowing in from all directions, this latest rebuke by the Oscar-winning actor is going to be particularly impactful, not least because of his popularity.

As Clooney mentions in his essay, he is a lifelong Democrat. But beyond that, he is among the American centre-left party's biggest fundraising weapons. He has led enormous fundraisers for Democratic nominees in the past, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden. In fact, the actor mentions a fundraiser three weeks prior where the Joe Biden he saw "was not the Joe… Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

This vote of no-confidence is significant because Hollywood, in the heart of California, has long been a powerbase for the Democrats, and the glitz and glamour of the American entertainment industry and its deep-pocketed media executives make up a vital portion of the Democratic party's funding sources.

However, following Biden's disastrous debate performance against Republican challenger Donald Trump, Hollywood started to let it be known that they watched the debate, and that they would be making decisions based off of it.

Variety, an American media outlet focused on entertainment, reported that top Hollywood donors had started to "freak out" after the debate. The meaning of this reaction, in practical terms for Biden and his campaign, is the drying up of precious millions in campaign funding.

The panic is far from universal in Hollywood. The Biden campaign enlisted the help of veteran actor and Hollywood royalty, Robert De Niro (80), to send out emails to potential donors and ramp up fundraising, reports Variety.

Some notable names in the American entertainment industry, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, were quick to make their opinions known following the debate. A prolific Democratic donor over the last few years, he told The New York Times that Biden needs to step aside to allow someone else the chance to beat Trump and keep America safe.

Abigail Disney, the heiress to the enormous Disney entertainment empire, has halted donations to the Democratic Party until Biden steps down, as reported by CNBC.

Until now, though, a group of core long-term supporters of the Democratic Party had kept quiet. George Clooney's essay, timed delicately to coincide with the end of a crucial NATO summit, breaks that barrier too.

Focus will now shift to figures like Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder and CEO of Dreamworks SKG, a major Hollywood studio. Katzenberg organises many of the fundraisers mentioned by Clooney in his piece on The New York Times, and his endorsement, or lack thereof, could be vital for the future of Biden's financial support from Hollywood. What filmmaker Steven Spielberg, actor Julia Roberts, or late-night host Jimmy Kimmel have to say will be closely watched too.

Politically, support for Joe Biden's presidential candidacy in November is contentious, but it still has the public backing of most Democratic representatives and senators in the US Congress. The shifting trend in Hollywood could translate to impending pressure on the Democratic coffers for the election campaign, which would not only impact Biden's reelection, but also the campaigns of hundreds of Democratic hopefuls in both the upper and lower house of the US legislature who rely on party funds to run effective campaigns.

If enough minds are made up over Biden's role in creating financial struggles for the Democratic party, then the Biden campaign may be in for even more pressure than it is currently facing. The ruling party in America, then, would have a difficult decision to make.