Grammys host Trevor Noah has been threatened with legal action by Donald Trump for a joke during Sunday’s awards ceremony about the president’s connection to the disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump fired off an angry post on his Truth Social platform shortly after the comedian said the song of the year award was “a Grammy that every artist wants – almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton”.
Both presidents’ names appear multiple times in tranches of papers known as the Epstein files, which include details of parties at Epstein’s private Caribbean island in which children were sexually abused. Trump and Clinton were both former friends of Epstein but have always denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Calling Noah a “poor, pathetic, talentless dope of an MC”, Trump said in the post he was “going to have some fun” with the South African comedian, and would instruct lawyers who will be “suing him for plenty$”.
“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!
“I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.
“Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.”
The sentiment at the music awards appeared firmly against Trump and his administration. Numerous artists wore anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) pins. And several winners called out Trump’s anti-immigrant sentiment in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Billie Eilish, whose award for her song Wildflower was the catalyst for Noah’s gag, said: “No one is illegal on stolen land. It’s really hard to know what to say or what to do right now … we need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting.”
Olivia Dean, the best new artist winner whose grandmother emigrated from Guyana to the UK, said: “I am up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant. I’m a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.”
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican singer who won three awards, said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens – we’re humans and we are Americans.”
Television comedians, particularly late-night hosts such as Noah, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, have been a regular target of Trump’s ire during his second term for their criticism of the president.
Colbert’s The Late Show is preparing to air its final episode in May after it was canceled by CBS last year. The decision came days after Colbert, who has hosted the show since 2015, criticized the network’s parent company Paramount for settling a $16m lawsuit with Trump, although CBS insisted the cancellation was unrelated.
Disney, ABC’s owners, suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for several days in September when the host was deemed to have made an insensitive remark after the murder of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump celebrated Kimmel’s suspension and urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke ABC’s broadcasting authority. But the show was reinstated after a widespread backlash over free speech, including by Hollywood talent, broadcast unions and a number of prominent Republicans.
Sunday’s Grammys were the last time the awards show will be broadcast by CBS, which analysts say has drifted to the political right since the merger last year of Paramount with Skydance Media. The network’s new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, has faced a number of controversies during her turbulent first three months.
Trump, in his post, appeared to celebrate the ending of the network’s partnership with the music awards. “The Grammy Awards are the WORST, virtually unwatchable!” he wrote. “CBS is lucky not to have this garbage litter their airwaves any longer.”
Noah, a former host of The Daily Show who has hosted the Grammys for six consecutive years, also noted it was his last time doing so.
“I told you it’s my last year!” he said as the audience reacted to his Epstein island joke. “What are you gonna do about it?”
In 2008 in Florida, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor. Authorities say Epstein then killed himself while jailed in New York in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
