Trump Calls Grammys ‘Unwatchable,’ Slams Trevor Noah Over On-Stage Jokes

What began as a late-night joke at the 2026 Grammy Awards quickly spiralled into a full-blown political flare-up.

US President Donald Trump unleashed a furious attack on Grammy host Trevor Noah, calling him a “total loser” and branding the ceremony “the worst” and “virtually unwatchable,” after Noah took multiple swipes at Trump during his opening monologue.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump lashed out at CBS, the Grammys, and Noah in a string of all-caps posts. “The Grammy Awards are the WORST,” Trump wrote, adding that the host—“whoever he may be”—was “almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards.”

The outburst followed a joke Noah delivered moments after Billie Eilish won Song of the Year. As he transitioned between segments, Noah quipped that the Grammy was something “every artist wants—almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” before adding a pointed reference to Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting Trump needed “a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.”

The joke landed with laughter in the arena. But it did not land with Trump.

Within hours, the president hit back, forcefully denying any connection to Epstein’s island. “WRONG!!!” Trump wrote, insisting he had “never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close,” and accusing Noah of making a “false and defamatory statement.”

The response escalated quickly. Trump threatened legal action, saying he would instruct his lawyers to sue Noah “for plenty$,” and warned the host to “get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.”

Noah, who was hosting the Grammys for the final time, did not respond publicly to Trump’s comments. During the ceremony, however, he continued his trademark blend of satire and social commentary—joking about America’s relentless news cycle (“In America, every time you turn on the news, you drink”), contrasting political scandals of the late 1990s with today’s chaos, and poking fun at the star-studded audience by likening it to “Jeff Bezos’ wedding but with way more Black people.”

The moment underscored a familiar fault line: entertainment as political satire versus political power as grievance.

For Noah, the Grammys marked the end of a hosting run that began while he was still anchoring The Daily Show and continued after his 2022 exit. For Trump, it became another front in his long-running war with late-night humour, award shows, and cultural institutions he believes mock him.

In the end, the Grammys delivered exactly what awards nights increasingly do in America: not just trophies, but flashpoints.

(With inputs from ANI)