Jimmy Fallon regrets ruffling Donald Trump's hair, says the incident caused him a lot of pain
Jimmy Fallon is opening up about the personal anguish and pain that he felt post the extreme backlash to his infamous hair-touching of Trump who had appeared on Jimmy's 'The Tonight Show'. Fallon was seen playfully stroking Trump's hair just weeks before the election. The incident raised a lot of eyebrows and as a result the show lost a fifth of his audience.
Opponents of Trump's presidency criticized Fallon for a truly cringe-worthy interview. The debacle resulted in Fallon losing his late night crown to Stephen Colbert's new and more political 'The Late Show' for CBS. Jimmy Fallon told The Hollywood Reporter that he "made a mistake" and apologized "if I made anyone mad". He also went on to add that he "would do it differently" as he looked back on the infamous September 15, 2016 episode.
In a Hollywood Reporter podcast, Fallon said that he was not approving of Trump and his beliefs just because he was joking around with him. "I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff."
During a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, Fallon explained that he was "just trying to have fun" with Trump and revealed that he was "devastated" at the backlash he received.
In the podcast, Fallon further revealed,"It’s tough for morale. You go, ‘All right, we get it. I heard you. You made me feel bad. So now what? Are you happy? I’m depressed. Do you want to push me more? What do you want me to do? You want me to kill myself? What would make you happy? Get over it. People just jump on the train, and some people don’t even want to hear anything else. They’re like, ‘No, you did that!’ You go, ‘Well, just calm down and just look at the whole thing and actually see my body of work."
He also told the New York Times, "If I let anyone down, it hurt my feelings that they didn’t like it. I got it." Fallon also recalled how the backlash really began to affect him and his staff and noted that it got "bigger and out of control" as other comedians started to join in on the fun and made jokes on the infamous incident. The backlash also resulted in Jimmy Fallon checking out of Twitter.
Fallon has gotten more political since the Trump interview and he also spoke out against white supremacy. He joined the Parkland students in their march to protest gun control. Despite his apologizing, many people believe that it is a bit too late, especially in the wake of Trump's shocking stand on immigration and Trump's recent family separation policies.