Jimmy Fallon finally opens up on softball Trump interview

Jimmy Fallon is finally addressing his controversial, hair-tussling interview with Donald Trump on The Tonight Show, wishing he spoke up sooner.

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon has never been hard on any of his guests. Nor has he taken sides politically, inviting Republican, Democrat, and Independent politicians all onto his show. So it wasn’t entirely out of character when Fallon “took it easy” on Trump in an interview during Trump’s presidential campaign. The worst things got was when Fallon played with Trump’s hair.

Still, the episode generated tons of negative controversy for Fallon. People were ripping him for not grilling Trump with more hard-hitting questions. With so many Americans seeing Trump as the enemy, people flocked to social media to blast Fallon for the “softball” interview.

At the time, Fallon remained totally silent, weathering the storm until the story faded. However, as reported by The New York Times, Fallon confirms the flak he was receiving was devastating. “If there’s one bad thing on Twitter about me, it will make me upset,” Fallon tells the publication. “So, after this happened, I was devastated. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just trying to have fun.”

While hard to say for certain, this fan backlash could have led to Fallon’s drop in the ratings. While still performing decently, he now regularly loses in the late night wars to Stephen Colbert. Obviously, Colbert doesn’t pull any punches while talking about Trump. So perhaps those looking for harsher jokes about the president could have jumped shipped to CBS.

Looking back, Fallon now wishes he would have spoken up back then instead of waiting until now. “I didn’t talk about it, and I should have talked about it,” the Tonight Show host says, before adding, “I regret that.”

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I don’t think Fallon is going anywhere anytime soon, with a solid position in second place. So expect the silly drinking games on The Tonight Show to continue.