Jimmy Fallon won't talk politics on 'The Tonight Show'

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‘Tonight Show’ host says he’s ‘just trying to make the best show we possibly can and entertain everybody’

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Published Oct 01, 2025 • Last updated 3 days ago • 4 minute read

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Jimmy Fallon Photo by Lloyd Bishop /NBCArticle content

U.S. President Donald Trump might be calling for him to lose his talk show, but late-night host Jimmy Fallon is promising to stay out of politics.

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During a recent chat with CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Fallon proclaimed that his show has “never really been political,” and he plans on keeping it that way.

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“We hit both sides equally, and we try to make everybody laugh, and that’s really the way our show works,” Fallon said. “Our monologues are kind of the same that we’ve been doing since Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show. So really, I just keep my head down and make sure the jokes are funny.”

Fallon praised the show’s writers and added that he’s “just trying to make the best show we possibly can and entertain everybody.”

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His remarks come after his fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily shelved following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“The MAGA gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

Kimmel also mocked the president’s response to Kirk’s death.

“On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this,” Kimmel said, before cutting to a clip where Trump pointed to construction at the White House after he was asked by reporters how he was handling the loss of Kirk.

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After ABC sidelined Kimmel following the news that a group of U.S. TV station owners said they would no longer air his show, Trump cheered the news and called on NBC to axe Fallon and Seth Meyers.

“Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even (Stephen) Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Last week, Trump sounded off on Kimmel’s return to the air by threatening to go after ABC.

“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” the president continued.

“I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

Jimmy Kimmel and Donald Trump. Photo by Getty Images

ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

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Earlier this summer, Paramount also agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by Trump over the editing of CBS’ 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in October.

After CBS announced Stephen Colbert’s late-night show will be coming to an end next year, a move some pundits speculated may have been politically motivated, Trump predicted other TV personalities would soon follow.

“The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” Trump said in a social media post in July. “These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it.”

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During a campaign rally last year in Pennsylvania, Trump took aim at Fallon, Colbert and Kimmel and declared the shows they front are “all dying.”

Trump destroys Jimmy Fallon at his Pennsylvania rally for the time when Fallon apologized for “humanizing” him during the 2016 election by messing up his hair on the Tonight Show.

“How WEAK and PATHETIC is a guy like that?” pic.twitter.com/m3Wvl8pCf2

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 24, 2024

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Fallon also drew Trump’s ire for apologizing to his audience after inviting the businessman to appear on The Tonight Show back in 2016.

“I go on his show, and he goes, ‘Is that your real hair?’ And I say, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Do you mind if I mess it up?’” Trump recounted, adding that he told Fallon he’d prefer if he didn’t. “So he grabs it, he starts going crazy, right? And everybody laughed; it was a big thing. It was all over the place and he got great ratings. Six months later, he went out — because he was under pressure — to apologize because he humanized Donald Trump. Do you remember? … How weak and pathetic is a guy like that?”

mdaniell@postmedia.com