The news is filled with coverage of Donald Trump‘s cabinet appointees being asked if they intend to back up the president-elect’s threats to prosecute individuals who have either spoken out against him—like Liz Cheney—or have actually pursued legal cases against him—like Jack Smith.
About the only group who seem to be more frequent targets for his public vituperation and public threats are those who make constant and unrelenting fun of him on television.
Yes, that means hosts of late-night shows. (And, presumably, late-night sketch performers).
Everybody in this unruly, talented group has surely gotten the message by now: watch your back; he’s coming for you.
Trump has not been shy about what he’d like to do to stop this torrent of jibes at his expense, threatening to use the Federal Communications Commission to sanction and/or revoke the broadcasting licenses of the networks that put these late-night shows on the air.
The latest example came this week when the once and future president unleashed a blunderbuss of an attack on an unlikely target: Seth Meyers, star of NBC’s Late Night.
Meyers seemed an unlikely target mainly because of his wee-hours airtime. Trump, after all, is a man about to take the oath of office, intending to install a regime of sweeping changes to everything from the American system of justice to the sovereignty of Greenland and Canada, yet for some reason he found himself (“stuck” was Trump’s word) watching a comedy show that airs at 12:37am.
What doubtlessly led to this episode of Sleepless in Palm Beach was that the show was about him. This is the furthest thing from unusual for late-night TV shows, virtually all of which address his daily excretions of bombastic behavior, from silly to chilling.
Yes, Meyers did fire jokes at Trump Monday night, mostly in the form of a broad observation that could easily have come from an Op-Ed column written by any opinion writer with a hostile take on Trump.
“He has no fixed principles or core beliefs or coherent ideas or constructive solutions or plans or proposals or policies or values or thoughts of any kind,” Meyers said.
He described Trump as someone who “watches TV and then he scream-posts about what he just saw.” He compared Trump to “an intellectual Roomba” because he “goes in one direction until he bumps into something and then he just goes off into another direction.”
Trump reacted venomously even though in other circumstances he would have enjoyed having the word “intellectual” associated with his name.
What truly stood out, however, was Trump’s not-at-all veiled threat against the company that owns NBC, saying Comcast really ought to “pay a BIG price for this.” (SCREAMING CAPS courtesy of the president-elect.)
Trump has done enough of this, directing similar ominous suggestions toward the companies that pay Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and others, that it is surely of concern to the companies.
If it’s of concern to the hosts themselves, they’ve not shown it yet, even when labeled such things as “dumb” and “a moron” and “marble mouth” by the imminent leader of the free world.
Because his Tuesday show was pre-taped, Wednesday night brought Meyers his first chance to reply to Trump’s bullying attack; his response was a master class in defanging without escalating. Surely the management of Comcast, if they had reservations about enflaming a bully, must have approved of Meyers’s approach.
He merely expressed patience for people who don’t like him—for example, supporters of Trump’s controversial Secretary of Defense designee—who might find themselves compelled to watch Late Night after a long day of ideologue-ing.
Here's how Seth Meyers addressed Donald Trump's social media post in which the president-elect described recently getting "stuck" watching Meyers' show. pic.twitter.com/LhpVjpxmqQ
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) January 16, 2025
“You might be asking yourself, Seth, why would a Pete Hegseth fan be watching your show? Fair Point. It has come to my attention that sometimes people who do not care for me get stuck watching my show. And to those people I could just say: You have my sympathy, and I hope you get a TV set that allows you to change the channel.”
Clearly Trump is the odd public figure who gets “stuck” watching shows that make fun of him. It’s hard to imagine Joe Biden spending any of his waning days in power—or any days at all—watching Greg Gutfeld describe his brain as oatmeal or pudding or some other masterfully witty putdown.
Trump is unique. He craves attention so much that he subjects himself to the ridicule that every public figure who ever lived in a free-speech country has experienced (and tried to avoid.) And then he uses his free-speech prerogative to fire schoolyard insults back.
The difference is that Trump thinks his part of the free-speech exchanges are fine, but wants to use the massive power at his disposal to bully the other side into submission—or maybe bankruptcy and/or jail.
At the moment, it looks like the fight is on and he’s in for more-sleep irritations. That is, unless he gets to bed earlier, or gets that new TV set Seth Meyers was talking about.
But other foundations are shaking. It’s advisable for the late-night hosts, and the people who employ them, to buckle in.
I don’t understand why this president elect can literally spew ,hatred at the late night hosts (who are MOSTLY COMEDIANS) and expect them to just sit back and take it. Years ago, the handsome young man that signed my copy of “The Art of the Deal” is NOT the same man that now calls people dumb and morons. Come on guys that work for our new president,, PLEASE advise him to behave more PRESIDENTIAL. He knows how.
His response was sooo subtle that it wasn’t. Perhaps he’ll take another shot tonight.