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The Democrats’ sweeping victory in the US midterm elections may have dealt a blow to President Donald Trump ahead of his final two years in the White House but it has proven a boon for late-night talk-show gags.
Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers celebrated the Democrats winning control over the Senate and the House by poking fun at their current president, who has railed against them and called for their cancellation.
“The Blue Wave made landfall and now the Red Wedding begins,” said the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, referencing a famous scene from Game of Thrones that depicts the massacre of several of the show’s major characters.
“It seems to be, after all the talk about Nicki Minaj’s ass, Jon Husted’s ass, the only ass on Trump’s mind tonight is the one that just got handed to him by America,” Kimmel said, describing the overall result as a “blue tsunami”. “Trump’s approval rating here is terrible,” he said. “Just like every woman he’s ever slept with, voters are unsatisfied with the job he is doing.”
The midterms resulted in Democrats winning in key battleground states as well as states such as Texas and Kansas (which had not elected a Democrat to the Senate in 94 years). Trump reportedly watched on as the results flowed in, becoming frustrated and occasionally cursing.
“Trump spent the day at the White House watching Fox News, trying to give himself an insurrection,” Kimmel quipped. “Word … is he’s already run out of dipping sauce containers to throw at the television set.
“Man oh man, would I hate to be the DoorDash driver who delivers Trump his Papa John’s [pizza] tonight.”
Kimmel then veered into policy, listing major concerns shared by many Americans today, including “corruption, inflation, climate change, war, wealth disparity, healthcare, housing, measles and democracy itself”.
“Now, let’s take a look at the 10 subjects MAGA seems to be worried about: transgender, testosterone, black Helen of Troy, windmills, ballrooms, Mexicans, reflecting pools, racism against whites, Tylenol, Canada and Canada.”
Overall, Kimmel described Trump as “a lame duck and an orange chicken at the same time”.
Fallon opened his show with a fairly gentle monologue, highlighting the win and using edited clips from Trump rallies as punchlines. Did the elections go well, Fallon asked. “Not even a little bit,” replied Trump. So, what message did voters send, Fallon continued. “I’ve done a shitty job as president,” the edited Trump said in response.
The Tonight Show host’s routine was interspersed with legitimate acknowledgments of the historic wins on election night: the first openly gay male senator, the first Muslim senator, the first Native American female state governor and senator, and the first black female governor. “It was a total blue wave caused by an orange president,” Fallon quipped.
“It was a blue Sharknado,” declared Seth Meyers on Late Night , which airs in the US after The Tonight Show . “Whatever you want to call it, everybody agreed what colour it was, even Donald Trump,” Meyers said.
“I’ll be honest, I was prepared to come out here and say something like, look, there was a lot of hype, and the Democrats didn’t live up to expectation … because waiting for the Democrats to have success can make you feel like you’re Matt Damon trying to grow a f---ing potato on Mars. Last night it was potatoes for everybody.”
Both shows were comparatively straight in their unpacking of the election, opting almost to recap the various district, house, senate and governorship wins (to rapturous audience applause) rather than either dissect the outcome in a purely comedic sense or indeed rejoice in the failure of the Republican Party. Grace in victory? Perhaps, but in that sense it feels more reflective of the national mood.
Trump has been on something of a crusade against late-night talk-show hosts in the US, particularly Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, the latter of whom he has described as having “no talent, no ratings, no life”.
The president has repeatedly called Kimmel a “loser” on his platform Truth Social, and called for Jimmy Kimmel Live! to be cancelled multiple times. The first was last year, when Trump applauded the ABC for suspending the show following Kimmel’s monologue discussing the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk . The second was following the show’s return to air, when Trump called on the ABC to dismiss Kimmel for joking on-air that the first lady had the “ glow of an expectant widow”.
The Daily Show , meanwhile, reacted to the blue wave on socials on Wednesday (AEDT), congratulating Trump on a “successful regime change” .
“BREAKING: Trump to commemorate his losses across the South by putting his name on a Confederate monument,” it wrote on X.
Elsewhere, Stephen Colbert – host of the now-defunct The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , which ended in May – celebrated the Democrats’ win over his childhood home state South Carolina, where they elected Democrat Annie Andrews to the Senate. He shared a picture of the South Carolina flag on his Instagram story alongside the Latin phrase Dum Spiro Spero , meaning “while I breathe, I hope”.
Hollywood more broadly was alight with emotional reactions following Wednesday’s results.
John Leguizamo, most recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s record-breaking hit The Odyssey , said the results marked “redemption time” in a video shared on his Instagram . “You did it, we did it,” the actor said. “Come on, baby, checks and balances must be put in place … It’s time to fix this mess.”
Mark Ruffalo, a long-time vocal critic of Trump and his administration, thanked his fellow Americans, writing on X that they had “voted for decency, fairness, equality, justice and against the flagrant corruption in our political system which has been stacked against the working people of this country”.
Bette Midler, another vocal opponent of Trump, said on Instagram she was overjoyed . “What a great, great night! Thank you, America! You’ve saved your beloved country!!”
John Cusack, meanwhile, suggested the Democrats’ win was only the beginning, with much work still to be done. “Impeachment and removal is non-negotiable, no accountability means it will happen again and again,” he wrote on X .
Renowned author Stephen King, meanwhile, kept his response on X short of sweet : “Buyers’ remorse.”
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