Late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel need Trump

Published April 29, 2026 11:22am ET | Updated April 29, 2026 11:22am ET



President Donald Trump increasingly has the same contentious yet symbiotic relationship with late-night television that he has had with the news media for the entirety of his career.

Trump’s denunciations of late-night hosts such as Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert imbue these comedians-turned-commentators with new cultural relevance, even as critics sound the alarm that the president is threatening their First Amendment rights.

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