During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Donald Trump appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, where Fallon playfully ruffled Trump’s hair. Fallon also thanked him “”for giving us the material that we are doing” because “you say some shocking things that I cannot even believe.” In response to the episode, Fallon received tons of backlash accusing him of “humanizing” the now-president.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on the “Awards Chatter” podcast, Fallon expressed his regret for the episode, and host Scott Feinberg dubbed the interview “the biggest mistake of Fallon’s career.”
Fallon was dragged on social media for the interview with Trump, and The Tonight Show soon lost one fifth of its audience after Trump won the election, FOX News reported. Fallon said that once the criticism began, it just kept piling on in a sort of “gang-mentality” against both him and his show. Fallon went on to to apologize and express his regret for even holding the interview at all.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to make anyone angry — I never do and I never will,” he says. “It’s all in the fun of the show. I made a mistake. I’m sorry if I made anyone mad. And, looking back, I would do it differently.”
Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to attack Fallon, calling the host out for “whimpering” about their interview. Telling him to “be a man,” Trump clearly didn’t see the interview or the “humanizing” to be such a bad thing.
.@jimmyfallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous “hair show” with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), & that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have “humanized” me-he is taking heat. He called & said “monster ratings.” Be a man Jimmy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
But Fallon hit back with probably the best response ever – making a donation to RAICES in the president’s name. RAICES, or the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, is currently working to help the immigrant children and their families trapped in detention centers at the border in response to the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.
In honor of the President’s tweet I’ll be making a donation to RAICES in his name.
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) June 25, 2018
We’d say Fallon definitely redeemed himself with that one.