On Saturday, Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on Seth Meyers, host of “Late Night,” branding him a ‘deranged lunatic’ and insinuating that Meyers’ critiques of his administration might be ‘illegal.’
The former president aired his grievances on Truth Social, seemingly in retaliation to a recent comedy segment by Meyers. In the clip, the comedian lampooned Trump’s remarks on steam catapults.
Trump has consistently voiced his discontent with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which has replaced the traditional steam-powered catapults on Ford-class aircraft carriers.
These catapults play a crucial role in launching aircraft from the carrier deck, compensating for the deck’s restricted length during take-off.
After watching Meyers’ show earlier in the week, Trump took to social media on Saturday to criticize the late-night host’s comments.
“Seth Meyers of NBC might be the least talented individual ever to ‘perform’ on television,” Trump declared. “In fact, he could be the WORST performer, live or otherwise,” he continued.
‘I watched his show the other night for the first time in years. In it, he talked endlessly about electric catapults on aircraft carriers which I complain about as not being as good as much less expensive steam catapults.
‘On and on he went, a truly deranged lunatic,’ the president continued.
‘Why does NBC waste its time and money on a guy like this???’ he asked, claiming Meyers has ‘NO TALENT, NO RATINGS’ and is ‘100 [percent] ANTI-TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL.’
President Donald Trump tore into Late Night host Seth Meyers on Saturday, calling him a ‘deranged lunatic’ and blasting his criticism of Trump as ‘illegal’
The president’s shared his ire on his Truth Social page, apparently in response to a recent segment Meyers did on his show in which the comedian mocked Trump for his comments about steam catapults
On his show Thursday night, Meyers played a clip of the president’s speech to US military members onboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier in Japan earlier in the week.
In the clip, Trump asked the military members which type of catapult is better for aircraft carriers, prompting several audience members to shout back: ‘Steam.’
‘They’re spending billions of dollars to build stupid electric,’ Trump then bemoaned.
‘And the problem, when it breaks, you have to send up to MIT, get the most brilliant people in the world, fly them out, it’s ridiculous. The steam they said they could fix with a hammer and a blowtorch and it works just as well if not better.
‘And I love the sight of that beautiful steam pouring off that deck – with the electric, you don’t have that,’ Trump added.
After playing the clip, Meyers joked that the president ‘spends more time thinking about catapults than Wile E Coyote,’ the Looney Tunes character.
‘Next, they start complaining how our troops don’t tie themselves to rockets anymore,’ Meyers continued, before impersonating Trump.
‘We used to strap our soldiers to the rockets and they loved it, but then everything got woke and they said “You can’t tie a person to a rocket,”‘ Meyers said in his impression of Trump.
‘But we miss those days and we’re bringing them back,’ he continued.
Meyers also attacked Trump in his segment for his trip through Asia more broadly, saying it was giving him the ‘royal treatment he so desperately craves.’
‘He wishes he could get the same treatment back here at home,’ the comedian joked.
‘He made it clear, for example, that he’s super jealous of China’s authoritarian government.’
Meyers joked about Trump’s trip through Asia on his show Thursday
This is not the first time Trump hit out at Meyers, however.
In September, he declared that Meyers would be the ‘next’ late night host to face cancelation following Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin.
‘That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,’ he wrote on his Truth Social page at the time, urging the network to ‘do it.’
The comments apparently rattled Meyers, with Puck’s Matthew Beloni saying that the late night host ‘has been freaking out over this.’
A television expert also told the Daily Mail that Meyers would be the next host to go due to networks’ shift away from politically charged content.
But Meyers did not back down on his show, accusing the Trump administration of ‘pursuing a crackdown on free speech,’ following Kimmel’s suspension in the face of threats from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
He also offered mock praise for the commander-in-chief in the mid-September episode as Kimmel’s show faced cancelation.
‘I just want to say, before we get started here, that I’ve always admired and respected Mr. Trump,’ he continued, provoking the audience to raucous laughter.
Trump previously called Meyers a ‘total loser’ as he urged NBC to cancel his show
The message came after ABC temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin
‘I’ve always believed he was a visionary, innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me saying anything negative about him, that’s just AI,’ the comedian joked.
Meyers then took on a more serious note as he spoke about Kimmel’s potential ouster.
‘It is a privilege and an honor to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, in the same way that it’s a privilege and honor to do this show every night,’ Meyers said.
‘I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we’re gonna keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it: with enthusiasm and integrity,’ he vowed.
