It wouldn’t be a Saturday in 2017 without the President of the United States airing his various grievances on Twitter, his preferred platform, and this Saturday was no different. After starting off his morning by tweeting about a relatively favorable Washington Post story about small campaign contributions from supporters, Donald Trump set his sights on those scoundrel late night hosts.
In the surreal landscape of our current administration, of course, it’s been the duty of our late night hosts to remind us all that the day to day madness is not okay — from Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers, to even Jimmy Fallon, who has even been forced to come down harder on Trump on The Tonight Show.
“Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very “unfunny” & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?,” Trump fired off. “More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage? [sic]”
Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very "unfunny" & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
To the surprise of no one, the president’s thoughts echoed sentiments being discussed on Fox News this morning, by none other than former network TV Superman Dean Cain.
the president of the united states is spending his saturday morning live tweeting a cable news show cohosted by dean cain pic.twitter.com/3A9MAV76i1
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) October 7, 2017
1 hour before this tweet, @FoxAndFriends did "Late Night Hosts Take Hard Turn Left." Usual claims: Comedians are unfunny, unpopular, etc https://t.co/7YaSktiHiV
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 7, 2017
Is … Is the president trying to suggest that late night shows should be forced to air positive coverage? That seems just a bit scary. One could argue that Trump already has equal time in the form of Fox News, but Seth Meyers decided to take him up on his demand anyway.
We'd love to have you! Studio located at 15 Penguin Avenue, Antarctica. https://t.co/2MyQTYwecZ
— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) October 7, 2017
Jimmy Kimmel likewise responded, making Trump quite the attractive offer:
Excellent point Mr. President! You should quit that boring job – I'll let you have my show ALL to yourself #MAGA
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) October 7, 2017
Tonight Show writer and producer Mike DiCenzo also reacted to Trump’s tweets, pulling no punches with his response:
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/916637135825965056
Either way, Trump soon switched gears to tweet about Obamacare and “fake” NBC News, so we probably don’t have to worry about Jimmy Kimmel being forced to playfully tussle the president’s hair anytime soon.