The weirdness of the current political climate means that late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel (for productive reasons) and Samantha Bee (uh, otherwise) have spent plenty of time in the headlines lately, but Jimmy Fallon is now enjoying his own dubious time in the spotlight. Mainly, he’d like to know why President Trump is investing so much time in their ongoing feud, which Fallon sparked while expressing regret for his hair-tousling Trump interview. Trump tweeted that Fallon needed to “be a man,” and the Tonight Show host responded by donating to a non-profit to refugees. And then Fallon addressed the matter during his Monday night monologue.
Fallon gave “a shout out” to Trump, who he called “our show’s number one fan.” Then he reached out to First Lady Melania to express concern that her anti-bullying campaign isn’t having an effect on her husband’s behavior, and Fallon questioned why Trump felt such a pressing need to settle the score:
“When I saw Trump had insulted me on Twitter, I was going to tweet back immediately, but then I thought I had more important things to do. Then I thought: ‘Wait, shouldn’t he have more important things to do? He’s the president! What are you doing? Why are you tweeting at me?'”
Tellingly, shortly before Fallon’s monologue aired, Trump stumped for South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster in a pre-runoff rally, and of course, he brought up his feud with Fallon. According to the New York Times, “The president spoke as much about his disregard for the late-night host Jimmy Fallon as about the man on the ballot.” Trump also claimed, bizarrely, that his hair is all natural, and he swatted at rumors that Melania had either decided to leave him or have plastic surgery.
Nothing about this discussion is normal, but one thing’s for sure — these hosts haven’t seen this much combative subject matter since the 2010 War For Late Night. And this battle between Trump and Fallon appears to be far from over.
(Via NBC News & New York Times)
