Jimmy Fallon was “devastated” by the backlash from his interview with Donald Trump on ‘The Tonight Show’ last year.
The 42-year-old comedian invited the billionaire businessman onto the NBC program in September 2016 during his campaign to replace Barack Obama as the US President – and Jimmy’s on-air antics, including ruffling Trump’s hair, led to him being widely criticized on social media.
Reflecting on the subsequent fallout from his interview, Jimmy said: “I go, I just can’t read Twitter. Then I can’t read the news. I can’t read the internet.” Jimmy was accused by social media users of being overly-friendly towards Trump and failing to engage him on any meaningful issues.
Responding to those accusations, the TV host told the New York Times newspaper: “I didn’t do it to humanize him. I almost did it to minimize him. I didn’t think that would be a compliment: ‘He did the thing that we all wanted to do.’”
Jimmy also admitted he regrets passing up the opportunity to address the controversy earlier. He confessed: “I didn’t talk about it, and I should have talked about it. I regret that.” By contrast, British star Harry Styles recently poked fun at the President during his week-long residency on ‘The Late Late Show’.
During a stand-up comedy-style routine on Tuesday (16.05.17), Harry quipped about Trump sharing intelligence information with Russia. As he walked out onto the stage, the ‘Sign of the Times’ hitmaker said: “Take a seat, please … a little more. Thank you. thank you, thank you. Loudest of the season!
“We’ve got a good one for you tonight, let’s do what we do every night and talk about the news. Of course, the big news of the day is that Donald Trump shared secret information with the Russians last week. The good news for Trump is that he has been named the employee of the month by Russia!”
