Former late-night TV host David Letterman launched a fierce defense of NBC’s Seth Meyers this week after President Donald Trump demanded the network fire Meyers on social media.
Trump posted on Truth Social on November 15, 2025, saying Meyers suffers from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and calling his show a ratings disaster. The president said Meyers has no talent and that NBC should fire him immediately. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, later reshared the message on his X account.
Letterman, who hosted NBC’s “Late Night” from 1982 to 1993 before moving to CBS’ “The Late Show” until 2015, appeared on “The Barbara Gaines Show” podcast on November 25 to respond. The 77-year-old comedian said the president now wants to fire Meyers and called the situation “just delightful.” Letterman said he has “never been more proud” of Seth Meyers.
The veteran comedian noted that “Late Night” is the old show he once hosted and said Meyers does a magical job. However, Letterman also seemed to warn Meyers about Trump’s past comments on the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia. Letterman told Meyers to remember that “things happen.”
Letterman’s comments became sharper as the interview went on. When podcast host Barbara Gaines brought up Trump calling a Bloomberg reporter “piggy” on Air Force One, Letterman responded by describing Trump as “a wonder of idiocy” that knows no bounds.
Letterman then made his strongest criticism of the president, calling Trump “our dictator” who is not going anywhere. The former host said Trump’s behavior is like 18 times the worst behavior witnessed anywhere and told people to think of the worst thing humans have ever accomplished, saying this is much worse.
The White House hit back at Letterman’s remarks through spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, who told Fox News Digital that nobody cares what lies irrelevant David Letterman spews out.
Trump’s attack on Meyers followed several nights of the “Late Night” host mocking the president in his monologues, including jokes about Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files controversy. In one segment, Meyers said that if anyone dares to say anything less than glowing about Trump, the president loses control. Trump’s social media response proved the point.
Trump wrote that Meyers may be the least talented person ever to perform live on television and questioned why NBC wastes its time and money on him. He also suggested legal action against the host over the host’s jokes, writing that being anti-Trump is “probably illegal.”
FCC Chairman Carr’s decision to amplify Trump’s message raised concerns about government overreach. Less than an hour after Trump’s post, Carr reshared it on X without adding his own comment. The next day, Carr posted from Mar-a-Lago that he had spent the weekend with Trump.
Meyers is the latest late-night host facing pressure from the Trump administration. ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from September 17 through September 22, 2025, after Kimmel’s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. FCC Chairman Carr had threatened regulatory action against ABC and its station owners, including the possible revocation of broadcast licenses, if Kimmel was not disciplined. When Kimmel’s show returned on September 23, it drew 6.26 million viewers, the most-watched regular episode in the show’s history.
CBS announced in July 2025 that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will end in May 2026. The network called it purely a financial decision and said it was not related to the show’s performance or content. The announcement came three days after Colbert criticized Paramount’s decision to settle a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million over edits to a 60 Minutes interview.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, spoke out against the actions targeting late-night hosts at a conference. Gomez said the FCC is “weaponizing its licensing authority” to bring broadcasters to heel and make them think twice about what they say about the administration. She said pressuring broadcasters to change their content goes against the First Amendment and the Communications Act.
Trump has gone after Meyers since the 2016 Republican primaries, regularly attacking the show’s ratings. After the latest Truth Social attacks, Meyers responded on his show, shifting the focus to policy issues, asking why the conversation was not about the government shutdown or food assistance for working families.