'May be We Have Swung Too Far Toward Being Empathetic'

Seth Meyers on impostor syndrome, Oprah 2020—and whether media elites try too hard to feel the pain of Trump voters

- Julia Ioffe

IN 2011, THE COMEDIAN Seth Meyers, then the head writer for Saturday Night Live and host of the show’s “Weekend Update” news roundup, mocked Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican,” Meyers said, as Trump sat stone-faced in the audience, “which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.” That same evening, President Barack Obama roasted Trump at length. The evening’s jokes—and the idea that they spurred Trump to run in 2016—have become Washington lore.

Meyers, who since 2014 has hosted Late Night on NBC, still refuses to pull any punches where Trump is concerned. In January, he hosted the Golden Globes and, in a clear callback to his 2011 mockery of Trump’s presidential ambitions, winkingly berated Oprah Winfrey, telling her that she doesn’t have what it takes to be president.

This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

JULIA IOFFE: Is Trump your fault?

SETH MEYERS: No. I still think Trump is the fault of the people who voted for him. I would feel so bad had this happened and in 2011 I hadn’t made jokes about him. He was behaving terribly then. One of the most offensive things he’s done was this idea that Barack Obama wasn’t born here. Trump was asking for it. I look back on that night, despite everything that’s happened, very fondly.

JI: Do you think that night’s mockery goaded him into running?