Late-Night Hosts React to Trump and Musk’s Messy Breakup

Days like yesterday remind us what late-night TV is for. From the moment Trump began talking about his long-simmering split with his “Dark MAGA” BFF Elon Musk during a press conference with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, jokes began pouring in on social media, and anyone who pays even cursory attention to the institution that is late-night media knew that the Jimmys of the world were going to have a field day with this news story.

By the time the duo began going back and forth on social media, culminating in Musk accusing Trump of burying the Epstein files because he is named in them, it was easy to imagine these shows’ writers foaming at the mouth to pitch monologue jokes. The Daily Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Late Night With Seth Meyers were all active this week, so the viewing public more than got its fix. Here’s how each one reacted to the messy breakup.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively, and Kendrick Lamar all got shout-outs in Fallon’s brief monologue about Trump and Elon’s conscious uncoupling. Fallon joked that even people entangled in messy public feuds like these three were like, “Take it easy, guys.” It’s also notable, Fallon added, just how quickly the friendship soured: “Their relationship went off a cliff faster than a self-driving Tesla.”

The Daily Show

A number of attempts will be made to give Trump and Musk’s bitter divorce a catchy name, but Michael Kosta of The Daily Show may ultimately win the battle with the simple and effective “World War Douche.” Kosta provided a more thorough recap of the events leading up to this extremely predictable split before hitting his stride with a joke about Musk’s revelation that Trump is in the Epstein files. “Of course Trump is in the Epstein files,” he said. “That’s like saying, ‘Guys, there are aliens in the X-Files.’”

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

“My fellow Americans and all the ships at sea, I hope you’ve stocked your family shelter with potable water and dehydrated turkey chili, because, ladies and gentlemen, a full-scale flame war has broken out between the world’s most famous besties,” Colbert kicked off his monologue Thursday night. The host seemed positively delighted by the unfolding chaos, joking that it must be a “Cheesy Gordita Crunchwrap Supreme because it’s dripping hot, messy filth and I am eating up every sloppy bite.” He took particular pleasure in pointing out the irony of Trump writing on social media that nobody wanted to purchase a Tesla when he himself made a big show of purchasing a Tesla earlier this year. “So now Donald Trump is a Tesla owner who hates Elon Musk? He’s never been more relatable,” he said. Colbert later followed this up with “Trump’s going to have to get one of those bumper stickers for his Tesla that says, ‘I bought this before Elon told everyone I was on Epstein’s plane.’”

Late Night With Seth Meyers

Has there ever been a more suitable use for one of Meyers’s signature “Closer Look” segments? Rather than toss off a bunch of one-liners about the day’s events, the host took his time to explain how funny it is that Musk risked so much of his personal wealth and reputation to align himself with this government only for Trump to inevitably backstab him by trying to brute force a so-called Big Beautiful Bill with a bunch of legislation that runs counter to Musk’s personal political philosophy. “It’s as clear as ever that neither of these guys really believed in anything,” Meyers said at the end of the segment. “Elon spent nearly $300 million to get Republicans elected, and now he’s shocked that they’re doing the thing everyone said they would do. And in the process, Trump used Elon to get back into power. In a way, they were right. Watching these guys destroy each other is both big and … beautiful.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

According to Kimmel, he had a whole monologue planned about the NBA finals and the unqualified new U.S. head of terror prevention, Thomas Fugate, but he had to scrap it at the last second to focus on the big news of the day. Don’t feel too bad for him — he jumped at the chance. “It’s like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning and finding a second tree,” he joked. In Thursday night’s opening, Kimmel joked that he feels bad for Trump lately because he’s running out of friends: “First, he lost Jeffrey Epstein, now Elon.” He then recapped some of the fallout from the public dissolution, referencing Steve Bannon’s comments that Musk should be deported and the outcry from an unlikely peacemaker: “Even Kanye West took a break from designing his new line of summer swastikas to say, ‘Bros, please no. We love you both so much,’” Kimmel joked. “That’s when you know things are nuts — when the guy trying to bring everyone together is Kanye.”

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