David Letterman is sharing some pointed support — and a little perspective — with Seth Meyers after Donald Trump publicly called for the Late Night host to be ousted.
Trump, 79, took to Truth Social on Nov. 17 to demand that NBC “immediately” fire Meyers, 51, from Late Night with Seth Meyers. A few days later, Letterman — who hosted Late Night from 1982 to 1993 — weighed in during a Tuesday, Nov. 25 appearance on the Barbara Gaines Show.
Giving a special “shoutout” to his longtime friend, the My Next Guest Needs No Introduction host said, “The president of the United States now wants to fire Seth Meyers. And I thought, ‘This is just delightful.’ How do you think that’s gonna go? Anyway, I’ve never been more proud of Seth Meyers. That’s our old show, as a matter of fact. We used to do that show.”
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After praising Meyers and saying he “does a magical job,” Letterman offered some tongue-in-cheek advice. “Just remember, Seth: things happen,” he said, echoing Trump’s own words from Nov. 18, when the president responded to questions about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Elsewhere in the segment, Letterman amped up his criticism, calling Trump a “wonder of idiocy” and sarcastically describing the president’s rhetoric as “just fantastic.”
“It knows no bounds. It’s never-ending, he’s our current — he’s our dictator,” Letterman said. “He’s not going anywhere.”
The former Late Show host went on to say that Trump’s conduct is “18-times the worst behavior one has witnessed anywhere.”
“Think of the worst thing that you’ve ever seen humans accomplish,” Letterman added. “This is so much worse. Couldn’t be more… Uh, it’s delightful.”
Trump’s back-and-forth with Meyers has been building for weeks. Earlier this month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr reposted Trump’s claim that Meyers is a “ratings disaster.” On Aug. 27, at 1:56 a.m., Trump posted again about Meyers, calling him “one of the least talented” hosts and saying he has “the personality of an insecure child.”
Meyers addressed being on Trump’s “s— list” during his Nov. 17 monologue, joking that the distinction “doesn’t make me special in any way, shape or form.”
“I was simply on the same s— list as Christopher Wray, James Comey, Indiana Republicans, Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene and former President Joe Biden,” he said.
He then added, “I wanna clarify that I take no issue with the president voicing his displeasure with my show. That is his right and, on a lot of nights, he’s got a point.”
Letterman has criticized Trump for years. The comedian and host — who interviewed Trump multiple times on Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman — reflected on their earlier interactions during a 2019 appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. At the time, he said Trump “just liked being on TV” when he appeared on the shows and that he “had no sense that he was the soulless bastard that he’s turned into.”
“He used to be kind of like the boob of New York that pretended to be wealthy, or we thought was wealthy, and now he’s just a psychotic,” Letterman said then. “Is that putting too fine a point on it?”
