Trump Whines While Leno Laments About Late Night Politics

Donald Trump is whining again. Now he thinks that late night comedians are not only biased, but are being mean to him also. And even though he can dish it out, our thin-skinned president clearly can’t take criticism — or jokes — that are directed towards him.

Trump went to Twitter Wednesday morning to complain about overly politicized and biased television programming after watching a segment on his favorite cable new program, Fox & Friends. 

Trump cited recent comments made by Jay Leno where he complained about the over-politicization of current late night programs. He also lamented about how “tough” it is when viewers only see political comedy as “one-sided.”

“Jay Leno points out that comedy (on the very boring late night shows) is totally one-sided. It’s tough when there’s only one topic.” @foxandfriends  Actually, the one-sided hatred on these shows is incredible and for me, unwatchable. But remember, WE are number one – President!”

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Ironically it is the show on Fox that almost everyone agrees is “overly politicized and biased.” But Trump thinks it’s OK, because it is biased in his favor.

Leno, in an interview on NBC’s Today Show, recalled simpler times in television, and drew a distinction between news programs and entertainment shows. He said that the goal of entertainment is to “make fun of the news and get your mind off the news.”

The former NBC “Tonight Show” host said that he doesn’t miss hosting a late-night show, because “everyone has to know your politics” now, during an interview with NBC’s Al Roker.

“Do you miss being on the show, or is it such a different time that it would be hard to do?” Roker asked Leno.

“No, it’s different. I don’t miss it. You know, everything now is, if people don’t like your politics, they — everyone has to know your politics,” Leno replied.

In the interview on NBC Leno said:

“I kind of used Johnny Carson’s model. People couldn’t figure out. ‘Well, you and your Republican friends’ or ‘Well, Mr. Leno, you and your Democratic buddies.’ And I would get hate mail from both sides equally.”

“But when people see you as one-sided, it just makes it tough,” Leno, 68, continued. “And plus, I did it when, you know, Clinton was horny and Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier.

“Now it’s all very serious,” he said. “I’d just like to see a bit of civility come back to it, you know? People say, ‘Oh, it must be easy to do jokes with Trump.’ No, it’s actually harder because the punch line of the joke used to be ‘That’s like the president with a porn star.’ Well, now the president is with a porn star. Where do you go with that? How do you get more outrageous than that?”

CLICK HERE to watch Jay Leno on The Today Show

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.