Meyers on Thursday began with some deadpan faux praise for the president:
“His administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech and, completely unrelated, I just want to say, before we get started here, that I’ve always admired and respected Mr. Trump. I’ve always believed he was a visionary, innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI.”
Meyers went on to poke fun at Trump’s recent state visit to the United Kingdom before turning serious about Kimmel’s sudden removal after garnering government criticism of his comments about right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last week.
“It is a privilege and an honor to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend in the same way that it’s a privilege and honor to do this show every night,” said Meyers. “I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech and we’re gonna keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it, with enthusiasm and integrity.”
“This is a big moment in our democracy and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression,” Meyers added. “There’s a reason free speech is in the very first amendment. It stands above all others.”
Watch Meyers’ full monologue here:
