Trump Says Late Night Shows Are ‘Not Allowed’ to Be Mean to Him

Barf Bag: The party of free speech, everyone!

By Susan Rinkunas | September 19, 2025 | 4:38pm

Photos: Getty Images Politics

Trump Says Late Night Shows Are ‘Not Allowed’ to Be Mean to Him

It’s been a very fascist week. On Wednesday, ABC indefinitely booted Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air, reportedly after complaints to the Federal Communications Commission regarding comments that host Jimmy Kimmel made about the alleged killer of MAGA darling Charlie Kirk.

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This is now the second late-night show getting yanked after CBS announced in July that it would cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert just days after he criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for paying $16 million to settle Donald Trump‘s absurd lawsuit against 60 Minutes. The company claimed that cancellation was due to budget shortfalls, but few people honestly believe that.

Trump has not exactly stayed on message, if you can believe it. On Wednesday, he suggested that Kimmel was canned because of ratings and implied that NBC should cancel Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers’ shows as well. On Thursday, Trump said Kimmel was fired not just because of ratings but also because “he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”

But later that day, Trump blurted out to reporters aboard Air Force One that, actually, network TV just can’t have shows that criticize him. “When you have a network, and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do,” he said. “They’re licensed, they’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.”

This little thing we have called the First Amendment would like a word.

Trump:"When you have a network, and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump… They're not allowed to do that."

— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T20:18:16.136Z

While two owners of local ABC channels kicked off this dark saga by yanking Kimmel over Kirk-related statements, let’s not discount the possibility that our thin-skinned president is upset over Kimmel making fun of the forthcoming White House Ballroom—which appears to be a pet project of Trump’s.

Last week, the President kept pivoting from questions about Kirk to talk about the construction of his fancy party room. On the White House lawn on Friday, one reporter said, “My condolences on the loss of your friend, Charlie Kirk. How are you holding up?” Trump responded: “I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks? They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they’ve been trying to get for about 150 years. And it’s gonna be a beauty. It’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure.”

Q: My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. How are you holding up?TRUMP: I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get for about 150 years.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-12T15:40:40.445Z

During a Fox & Friends segment on Friday morning, Trump recounted how he first heard about the shooting: He was told during a meeting with architects for the project that he said is necessary because when it rains, foreign dignitaries slip on the grass while walking to a tent.

Trump on Charlie Kirk: "Oh, when I heard it? I was in the midst of building a great — for 150 years they've wanted a ballroom at the White House, right? They have to use tents for President Xi when he comes over. If it rains, it's a wipeout. And so I was with the architects … "

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-12T13:02:26.602Z

During Tuesday night’s monologue, right after Kimmel said that the “MAGA gang” was “doing everything they can to score political points” from Kirk’s murder, he brought up Trump’s ballroom comments.

“He’s at the 4th stage of grief, construction,” he said. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend, this is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Kimmel then played the Fox & Friends clip and said, “There’s something wrong with him, there really is, who thinks like that.”

Apologies for yet another embedded video, but The Daily Show did an “administration-approved” show Thursday night, complete with tacky gold everywhere. John Stewart only hosts on Mondays, but he came back for a special edition that pokes fun at state TV in authoritarian countries. We are basically in one of those now.

Join a protest near you, readers, and enjoy that sweet free speech while we still have it.

This is too wild for a mere bullet: We previously informed you that French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, are suing far-right commentator Candace Owens for defamation because she keeps claiming that Brigitte is transgender. Owens is trying to dismiss the suit, and now the Macrons’ lawyer tells the BBC that the couple is “planning to present photographic and scientific evidence to a US court to prove Mrs Macron is a woman.” Such evidence, they argue, would prove that Owens’ claims are false. Attorney Tom Clare said that “it is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward.” Horrific shit.

More barf:

After days of decrying political violence only from “the left,” Trump appeared not to recognize the name of Melissa Hortman, the Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker who was assassinated in June. [The Guardian]
Relatedly, the Department of Justice deleted a study showing that domestic terrorists are most often white supremacist and far-right actors. [404 Media]
The Vice President of the United States hosted an episode of Charlie Kirk’s podcast from his government office building in which he said he supported a mass harassment campaign against people who didn’t mourn Kirk in a way he approves. [BBC]
An immigration appeals court ordered the deportation of journalist Mario Guevara, who has both a work permit and a pending green card application. The Committee to Protect Journalists said his detention and potential deportation were the result of his reporting on immigration. [The Guardian/CPJ]
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged voters to let Trump and Texas steal the House of Representatives by opposing Proposition 50. [Associated Press]
Childhood vaccination rates for measles, mumps, and rubella have fallen well below the threshold needed to prevent the spread of measles in two-thirds of counties that collect MMR vaccine info. [NBC News]
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. installed a bunch of new freaks to a CDC vaccine recommendation panel and they reversed one of their own decisions from a day earlier and pushed off another vote on a hepatitis vaccine. [NPR]
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the same mortgage declaration error that Trump wrongly accused Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook of making. [Bloomberg]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading!