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Late Night’s Seth Meyers offers Donald Trump NBC TV show

By Hector Cruz

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Late Night host Seth Meyers offers Donald Trump a chance to play the president on TV if he drops out of the presidential race.

The feud between Seth Meyers and Donald Trump continues, following the ban of the presumptive Republican nominee from Late Night in response to his barring of the Washington Post from his rallies. The move resulted in Trump soon firing back at the comedian, with Meyers getting the last word in on the most recent episode of his late-night series by making him a “generous” TV offer.

Meyers began by reiterating that Trump is banned from his show, which “he’s never expressed any interest in appearing on whatsoever,” joking that his stance “requires an incredible amount of bravery.” He then showed a news report highlighting the following statement from Trump directed at the host:

"“He has begged me to do the show for the last two years. I have told him emphatically ‘no.’ I only like doing shows with good ratings, which as everybody knows, I only make better (by a lot).”"

“Well, those are some very interesting points, and we’ve reconsidered our position and… you’re still banned,” Meyers said to cheers from the audience. “Or as we say here at Late Night: Ya Bann’t!” he added, referencing the show’s “Ya Burnt” segment.

He then addressed the theory that Trump is essentially throwing the election because he doesn’t actually want to be president, given all of the controversial statements he’s made the past few months. Meyers explained:

"“The idea is that Trump never actually thought he would get this far, he just wanted the publicity and the ego boost that came from running, and now that he’s actually succeeding, he’s trying to undermine his own campaign so that he’ll lose.”"

While he admitted that he wasn’t certain that this theory is actually true, he decided to come up with a way out for Trump, offering up the opportunity to play the POTUS in a scripted NBC program if he drops out of the race before the GOP convention on July 18.

More from Late Night

“Donald, you’d still get to be the president of the United States, but on TV,” Meyers continued. “Now I want to be clear, I did not run this by anyone at the network. But they put our show on the air every night, so I can’t imagine they’re going to say no to yours. They’re not picky.”

He added that the show would begin airing next January to coincide with the inauguration of the real president. Meyers also gave him the option of it being a serious drama with a heroic president like The West Wing, or a comedy such as Seinfeld, as well as unrestricted access to all of the network’s top writers. He expressed that the opportunity would allow Trump to follow through on his policy proposals that would be “impossible in the real world,” including building a small part of the wall, while CGI-ing the rest. It could also include a scene where a judge (played by Jimmy Smits) admits that he’s biased against him because he’s Hispanic and jealous because he couldn’t get into Trump University, referring to the real life case surrounding the now-defunct company that’s being headed by a judge of Mexican descent.

Meyers added, “Embrace this Donald. This is what you want; to have all the trapping of the presidency without any of the responsibilities.”

He also pointed out that the rest of the country would have the opportunity to see what a Trump presidency would look like, “but with no real world consequences,” comparing the public’s curiosity of a President Trump to “kids throwing rocks at a beehive,” explaining, “They know it’s dangerous, but they just want to see what’s going to go down.”

However, one caveat is that the show would have to take place in Chicago to continue NBC’s popular Dick Wolf-produced franchise, using the title Chicago President. Watch the full Late Night clip below:

Related Story: Daniel Radcliffe recalls Donald Trump's advice to Seth Meyers

The bad blood between Meyers and Trump stems from the SNL alum’s roast of the then-Apprentice host at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he and President Obama took several jabs at Trump while he sat stone-faced in the audience. The billionaire’s ego was so bruised that night that the mockery reportedly spurred him to run for president in 2016 as a mode of revenge.

Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. on NBC. This week’s guests include Daniel Radcliffe, Billy Eichner, Anna Kendrick, Alexander Skarsgard, Blake Lively, Finesse Mitchell, Aubrey Plaza and Neil Gaiman.

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