Comedian Jim Gaffigan admits he majorly regrets alienating Trump's MAGA faithful
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Comedian Jim Gaffigan said in a podcast interview released Wednesday that he regrets that his criticism of President-elect Donald Trump has alienated some of the Republican's MAGA faithful.
Gaffigan spoke with The Daily Beast's Laugh Last podcast for a New Year's Day episode about his decision to periodically wade into politics in several anti-Trump posts despite keeping his stand-up apolitical.
The comic also played a role during key parts of the 2024 race – portraying Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on Saturday Night Live and being tapped as the entertainment for the annual Al Smith, which only Trump attended.
'I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention,' Gaffigan said. 'I regret – someone said like, now I can't follow you anymore and I kind of said 'F you' to them.'
'But it's weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children,' Gaffigan continued.
Gaffigan said he didn't regret the substance of what he said about Trump.
Ahead of the 2020 election and amid the COVID-19 pandemic Gaffigan lashed out on Twitter against the Republican president.
'You know Trump just creates enemies. You know you can't trust him. You know he's been incompetent during this crisis. You know all those people didn't need to die,' Gaffigan wrote in an August 2020 post. 'Trump talks about the Space Program when you can't safely go to a movie. Wake up.'
Comedian Jim Gaffigan said in a podcast interview released Wednesday that he regrets that his criticism of President-elect Donald Trump has alienated some of the Republican's MAGA faithful
Jim Gaffigan (right) played Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the fall episodes of Saturday Night to Maya Rudolph's Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the 2024 election
Looking back on it, Gaffigan said he acknowledged 'that there are true die-hard Trump fan who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will never forgive me.'
'But also, something I've noticed in doing stand-up for so long is, you're going to lose people. You're also going to attract people,' he continued. 'But there are going to be people who are like, you know, I don't have kids, I think he's funny, but I don't get this.'
Gaffigan said there wasn't a 'measurable' effect once his anti-Trump views were public.
'But there were definitely comments on social media, and there are still some,' he explained. 'My son, who's so funny - I posted something, and my 18-year-old son commented, 'I liked him until he went on his Trump rant,' Gaffigan recalled.
The comedian also spoke about the tightrope he had to walk when delivering jokes at the Al Smith dinner, especially since Harris decided to skip the annual event that benefits Catholic charities.
'I knew that it was going to feel like a Trump home game,' Gaffigan said.
He received some blowback from the left for being too cheeky with Trump
'I was 'normalizing a fascist,' right?' he said. 'I knew going into it that I was going to get criticism from both sides. I'm not a roast comedian. I mean, I love politics, but I just don't talk about it.'
MAGAsSupporters watch returns at a campaign election night watch party
Gaffigan says he doesn't regret criticizing President-elect Donald Trump, pictured with Melania Trump on New Year's Eve, but he feels badly about alienating Trump supporters
'So I knew that if I did jokes about either side that there was going to be some blowback. But I also thought it was worth it,' he added.
Gaffigan revealed that he had turned down headlining the White House Correspondents' Dinner on a couple of occasions.
During the annual spring gathering, a comic is charged with roasting the president – who generally attends and sits at the dais – and members of the political community and the press.
'And I was like, you know what? I'll do the Al Smith thing,' Gaffigan recalled. 'Some of it was, I like the challenge of possibly doing this in a nimble way.'
'Like, I have religion jokes where, if you can do it in a way where you can make the believer and the agnostic laugh, it's mission accomplished,' he added. 'So I wanted to go about doing the Al Smith dinner in that same way.'
Gaffigan said he also realized that people were going to feel 'very protective' of Harris if he went too tough on the Democrat.
'But what I thought was interesting about this election is, and maybe because it was so important, and maybe because it was such a short election for Kamala, that people were like, 'don't criticize her,' Gaffigan recalled. 'And my whole thing is, that's actually bad to have to have that approach.'
'And I think in hindsight, a lot of people feel that way,' the comedian noted.
