Donald Trump Shrugs Off Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’ Ban

By Kayla Cobb @kaylcobb
Published June 16, 2016, 10:48 a.m. ET

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Late Night With Seth Meyers

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Welcome back to the surprisingly dramatic world of late night television. In this corner, we have critically-acclaimed comedian and host of Late Night, Seth Meyers. And in this corner we have presidential hopeful and billionaire, Donald Trump. Let’s get into it.

Meyers has banned Donald Trump from the Late Show until Trump restores press access to The Washington Post. Here’s your backstory: Every news outlet and late night show has taken a stand about Orlando’s horrific shooting, but in a follow up Closer Look, Meyers took a slightly different approach. Instead of focusing on gun violence or terrorism, the NBC late night host devoted a segment analyzing Trump’s response to Orlando, specifically rebuking Trump for revoking The Washington Post’s press access. This ban means The Washington Post and its subsidiary companies — BuzzFeed, Politico, The Daily Beast, Univision, and The Huffington Post — will not be allowed press access to Trump’s campaign.

Meyers’ talked at length about the importance of freedom of the press, before declaring his own ban:

“As for The Washington Post, we at Late Night believe in freedom of the press and therefore have decided to stand in solidarity with them. So as long as The Washington Post is banned from Donald Trump’s campaign, Donald Trump will be banned from ever coming on this show.”

Meyers then added as an afterthought, “He wasn’t coming on anyway. Let’s be honest, he had no interest.” However, a late night show banning someone who is essentially the Republican nominee during an election year is no a small thing. It’s a statement, and one that Trump quickly responded to.

In an interview with Variety, Trump delivered the most Donald comeback you can imagine:

“He has begged me to do the show for the last two years. I have told him emphatically, ‘No.’ I only like doing shows with good ratings, which as everybody knows, I only make better (by a lot).”

But Meyers hasn’t let Trump have the last word. In a segment released last night, Meyers stood by his ban, saying, “So the ball is in your court, Donald. Either rescind your Washington Post ban or you’re not allowed to appear on a show that you have no interest in appearing on.” You can check out the response below:

Both Meyers and Trump are right — there was next to no chance that Trump would appear on Late Night. However, he has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This ban turns the attention to Meyers’ late night peers. After all, just this week Stephen Colbert not so subtly compared Trump to Nazi Germany and then to an asshole. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Trump at least threatened to ban Colbert’s show.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Meyers’ late night peers soon. As a general rule, members of the press strongly support freedom of the press, and, with the exception of Kimmel and Fallon, this current round of late night hosts gleefully do not pull back punches when it comes to Trump. Personally, I’m waiting with bated breath to see what Samantha Bee and John Oliver have to say.

[Where to watch Late Night with Seth Meyers]