Star comedian Jim Gaffigan expressed regret during an interview on Wednesday that supporters of President-elect Donald Trump thought he was criticizing them in a series of negative social media posts against Trump during the 2020 presidential election.
Gaffigan, who recently was a featured guest alongside Trump at the Al Smith dinner and played former Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on “Saturday Night Live” during the 2024 election cycle, expressed his regret during an interview on a podcast episode of The Daily Beast’s “The Last Laugh” that aired on Wednesday.
“I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention,” Gaffigan said. “I regret— someone said like, now I can’t follow you anymore and I kind of said ‘F you’ to them.”
Gaffigan explained that while he regrets the way Trump supporters took offense to his posts, he does not regret sharing the statements on social media.
“It’s weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children,” the comedian said. Gaffigan added, “For me, I don’t regret it, but I also do acknowledge that there are true die-hard Trump fans who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will .”
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In August of 2020, Gaffigan criticized Trump and made fun of Trump supporters. He tweeted, “Look Trumpers I get it. As a kid I was a cubs fan and I know you stick by your team no matter what but he’s a traitor and a con man who doesn’t care about you. Deep down you know it. I’m sure you enjoy pissing people off but you know Trump is a liar and a criminal.”
In another post on X, formerly Twitter, Gaffigan slammed Trump for his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “You know Trump just creates enemies. You know you can’t trust him. You know he been incompetent during this crisis. You know all those people didn’t need to die. Trump talks about the Space Program and you can’t safely go to a movie. Wake up.”
During Wednesday’s podcast episode, Gaffigan noted that one of the lessons he has learned while working as a stand-up comedian is that “you’re going to lose people.”
“You’re also going to attract people,” he added. “But there are going to be people who are like, you know, ‘I don’t have kids, I think he’s funny, but I don’t get this.'”
