Late-Night Hosts Skewer Trump’s Fox News Dependence and Young Republicans’ Racist Messages

Late-night television took aim at two disturbing developments in American politics this week: Donald Trump’s reported reliance on Fox News for policy decisions and the exposure of deeply offensive messages from a Young Republicans group chat.

Jimmy Kimmel opened his Wednesday evening monologue by reflecting on the current political climate. “It’s hard to imagine, but one day this avalanche of insanity we get buried under, each day deeper and deeper than the next, will one day be taught in history books in every place other than Florida,” Kimmel remarked. “What a stupid time to be alive.”

Kimmel referenced a troubling Daily Beast report that revealed Trump’s inner circle has become “alarmed” by Fox News’s influence on his decision-making. According to the report, Trump may have deployed the National Guard to Portland, Oregon based on Fox News footage of Black Lives Matter protests from summer 2020, apparently mistaking them for current events.

“He still might think that’s happening in real time,” Kimmel said. “He’s on a five-year delay from the rest of us.”

The late-night host pointed out the irony of Trump’s team being concerned about Fox News misinformation when many of them previously worked for the network. “Trump’s inner circle knows just how dangerous the incessant misinformation from Fox News can be, because they all worked there 10 months ago,” he quipped.

Kimmel also addressed statements made by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Fox News, where she falsely claimed “thousands” of protesters had “pre-bought, pre-put together” signs, suggesting organized resistance funded by unnamed sources. Bondi threatened to “get to the root of antifa” and charge “all of those people who are causing this chaos.”

“There’s no chaos in Portland. None. There’s no chaos in Chicago. There was no chaos in Los Angeles,” Kimmel countered. “They’re pretending there’s chaos as pretense for a military takeover.”

Over on “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert also addressed the current political landscape, saying that nine months into Trump’s second term, “it feels like we’re about to give birth to an unvaccinated porcupine.”

Colbert spent considerable time discussing the leaked Young Republicans messages reported by Politico. The cache of nearly 3,000 pages of private communications revealed shocking content, including one member writing “I love Hitler,” along with numerous slurs against Jewish people, women, Black people, and other minorities.

“That is a tough one to spin,” Colbert joked about the Hitler comment, before mocking potential excuses: “What? I was talking about Pete Hitler and his honky tonk bluegrass band. You’re telling me there’s another Hitler?”

The Young Republicans group, which requires members to be at least 18 years old, included individuals as old as 40 participating in the offensive exchanges. This contradicts Vice President JD Vance’s attempt to downplay the messages as “kids do stupid things, especially young boys.”

“Cause nothing says young like getting your first routine colonoscopy,” Colbert quipped about the older members of the “young” group.

The late-night coverage highlights growing concerns about both the administration’s information sources and the extremist rhetoric within Republican youth organizations. Political analysts note that these incidents reflect broader trends of misinformation and radicalization affecting American politics.

As protests continue across several major cities in response to controversial policies implemented during Trump’s second term, the administration’s perception of these events appears increasingly detached from reality, according to multiple reports from journalists on the ground.

The exposed Young Republicans messages also raise questions about the pipeline of future leadership within the Republican Party and the normalization of extremist viewpoints among its younger members, even as party leadership attempts to minimize the significance of the leaked communications.