donald trump Not a fan of late night television.
The president has criticized Jimmy KimmelStephen Colbert, John Oliver, Bill Maher and even Jimmy Fallon. Aside from Greg Gutfeld on Fox News, his disdain for the current crop of late-night hosts is inexhaustible. It has recently led him to ask ABC to take Kimmel off the air, and even threaten to sue the network.
Trump has said he wishes him that legendary late-night host Johnny Carson He came back from the dead to be a host. Tonight’s program. “Where’s Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny,” he said while campaigning in 2024. A few years earlier, Trump called modern late-night hosts “weak” compared to Carson, who “did a great job” and “wasn’t political.”
Perhaps the president will want to reconsider his desire to keep Carson on the air. The late-night talk legend relentlessly mocked Trump when he was an attention-hungry real estate developer in the ’80s and early ’90s. For example:
Johnny, like his famous Carnac the Magnificent, using mystical powers, was the first to give the answer: “Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserablesand the mouth of Donald Trump.”
The presenter then opened the envelope and read: “Name three things in New York that can last forever.”
Another Carson joke: “A black hole is a collapsed neutron star of such intense gravity that not even Donald Trump’s ego could escape.”
On Trump bankruptcies: “Donald Trump was supposed to be with us tonight, but he called from the Motel 6 and said he missed the bus” and “The other day I saw Donald Trump on the street with a sign that said, ‘We’re selling the Plaza Hotel for food.’”
On Trump being a bully: “Have you seen Milton Bradley’s latest game called Triumph? Yes, from Donald Trump. You roll the dice and land on a spot that says “Evict an elderly couple, collect $1 million in property taxes.” “It comes with dice, a board, and a little plastic homeless game.”
Carson once read a mock memo written by Trump to children’s television host Mister Rogers: “It’s my neighborhood now. Take your crappy sweater and get out.”
Some have argued that Carson was not political. It isn’t true. There’s little chance he would have abandoned Trump if he were in the White House.
As someone who interviewed over 400 people about Carson for my book, I love Johnny CarsonI can attest that he could be brutal with politicians. He hit everyone, upsetting numerous presidents and their families with his biting jokes.
Nancy Reagan called Carson to complain about his jokes about Ronnie. Gerald Ford blamed Carson’s jokes for the perception that he was a “stumbler.” During then-Senator Joe Biden’s plagiarism scandal in 1987, Carson biased him for months and Biden eventually dropped out of the 1988 presidential race.
No one in authority, Republican or Democrat, was spared.
However, Carson had heart. When in the middle of Watergate he learned that Nixon was abusing alcohol, he stopped attacking the president. He was also not afraid to make his political opinions clear on the air.
Carson expressed outrage (and said so on his show) when in 1978 a 19-year-old college freshman was sentenced to 12 years for selling a third of an ounce of marijuana. Carson called the punishment “unbelievable” and “wrong.”
In his monologues, he made clear his disdain for singer-turned-anti-gay activist Anita Bryant for months. In 1977, in Dade County, Florida, Bryant fought to eliminate an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. One newspaper headline read: “Carson Is Making Anita Bryant a National Laughing Stock.”
Carson hosted the 1972 Emmy Awards when The Johnny Mann Singers performed an overly patriotic song as the Vietnam War raged on. After the musical number, Carson sarcastically joked, “War bonds are for sale in the lobby,” to thunderous applause. Carson’s line sparked outrage from conservatives.
Carson’s boldest political move came in 1968, when he invited singer and actor Harry Belafonte, a well-known civil rights activist, to perform tonight’s show for a whole week. “Invite any guests you want,” Johnny said. Belafonte hired guests who were outspoken about civil rights and against the Vietnam War. The list that terrified NBC included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
Simply put: Carson was a rebel and a radical.
“Jimmy Kimmel is not Johnny Carson,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said last September amid a pressure campaign that led ABC to take Kimmel off the air for a week, but Carr has no idea how Johnny would have fared after Trump.
“I think Trump would offend him and anger him,” said Carson writer Michael Barrie. he told a journalist. “Johnny was the epitome of decorum, good manners and Midwestern reticence, and Trump is the antithesis of that.”
I can only imagine how Carson’s comedic genius would destroy a man who has provided more material for late-night comedians than almost any public figure in American history.
