Prøve GULL - Gratis
Despots have always hated being beaten to the punchline
The Independent
|September 25, 2025
When Donald Trump attacked Jimmy Kimmel during the Oscars, Kimmel simply read Trump's rants aloud, letting the words expose the smallness behind the bluster (Disney)
On Tuesday evening, Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night television, and so Donald Trump has reacquired one of his most persistent and most effective critics.
Why are comedians so much better than politicians at criticising Donald Trump? The answer is simple. It has always been thus. Comedy cuts through the nonsense and speaks to the gut in the way senators and governors cannot. Donald Trump understands this, and so for him, it is intolerable.
Trump reacts more furiously to comedy monologues than to Senate speeches. He spends more time complaining about Saturday Night Live than about editorials in The New York Times. Kimmel and others have got under his skin. Senators can oppose Trump's policies, but a comedian can rob him of his aura of authority, and that is the greater threat. When the weapon of choice is wit, Trump and his ilk are unarmed.
Denne historien er fra September 25, 2025-utgaven av The Independent.
Abonner på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av kuraterte premiumhistorier og over 9000 magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
FLERE HISTORIER FRA The Independent
The Independent
McKellen delivers his best performance since Gandalf
The veteran actor plays a cruel, bitter painter who torments his children in ‘The Christophers’, and ‘Obsession’ is one of this year’s creepiest movies so far, writes Clarisse Loughrey
5 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
Wes faces an uphill battle to win over Labour activists
Wes Streeting had to go for it.
3 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
Streeting’s words to PM – and what they really mean
Millie Cooke reads between the lines of his resignation letter
2 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
A prince in search of a voice
The Duke of Sussex’s earnest but clumsy intervention on the serious subject of antisemitism reveals a deeper problem at the heart of his brand. Since his royal exile to California, Harry is a man without a purpose, writes Harry Mount
5 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
History beckons for Hearts as they step into 'lion's den'
The Jam Tarts can win a first league title since 1960 if they avoid defeat at Celtic tomorrow, as a title race for the ages culminates in an epic showdown.
5 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
Amazon delivery driver who stole family cat is spared jail
A delivery driver caught on a doorbell camera taking a cat from a garden has avoided jail.
3 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
Britain backs plans to make it easier to deport migrants
The UK has joined EU ministers in a pledge to make it easier to deport foreign nationals as the continent tackles the problem of illegal migration.
2 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
CIA chief in Havana as the country suffers energy crisis
CIA director John Ratcliffe yesterday delivered a message from President Donald Trump to top Cuban officials in Havana that the US would “seriously engage” on economic and security issues “only if it makes fundamental changes,” a CIA official told Reuters.
2 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
Starmergeddon: what's next for the Labour government?
Here’s how a contest could be triggered and who could stand
3 mins
May 15, 2026
The Independent
China and US have special relationship, insists Trump
As president invites Xi Jinping to America in late September
3 mins
May 15, 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size