Donald Trump had a strong response to late-night show legend David Letterman labeling the president an “authoritarian,” in response to Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC suspension.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump kept his rebuttal to Letterman’s comments short but not sweet.
“Whatever happened to the very highly overrated David Letterman, whose ratings were never very good, either,” Trump wrote. “He looks like hell, but at least he knew when to quit. LOSER!!!”
The classic Trump response comes after Letterman told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg during The Atlantic Festival on Thursday that the rampant censorship is “misery.”
“We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly,” Letterman said. “It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
Kimmel was suspended Wednesday by ABC after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened the network a few hours earlier on while speaking with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. Kimmel was targeted by the Trump administration for comments the host made on Monday night regarding the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The exact words that brought down the might of Trump’s censorship machine were, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said in the interview. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
In his conversation with Goldberg, Letterman said mocked Carr’s turn of phrase when threatening Disney. “Who is hiring these goons? Mario Puzo?”
Despite’s Trump’s taunts of being “highly overrated” Letterman is held in high regard by his peers. After hosting nearly 2,000 episodes of Late Night with David Letterman through the 1980s and 1990s, he is considered the inspiration for many including Kimmel, who has called the comedian the “main reason he got into television.”
Letterman is also far from the first late night show host Trump has targeted directly by name. The president’s Truth Social account is filled with posts calling for the firing or removal of Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. After CBS announced that it was canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Trump posted that Jimmy Kimmel was “NEXT.”
It is unlikely that Letterman will be cowed by Trump’s direct attack. He was also outspoken following the cancellation of Colbert’s show. At that time, he called the decision from Paramount and CBS “pure cowardice” in a 20 minute rant.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
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