President Donald Trump may have angered a key part of his base with his attacks against late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, according to one analyst.
Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, discussed Trump's attacks on Kimmel during a new episode of "Pod Save America" on Tuesday. Pfeiffer said Trump's efforts to remove Kimmel from the air have ticked off other high-profile comedians, some of whom have been the president's most staunch defenders.
"The people most pissed about this are the apolitical, MAGA-adjacent former comedian manosphere influencer types who have huge loyal followings," Pfeiffer said. "People like Andrew Schultz, Tim Dylan, and people like that. Those people are pissed about this, and so they're communicating to their audience about how Trump has violated his promises on free speech."
"They're saying that Trump is doing more to rein in speech than Biden ever did," Pfeiffer added. "That this is a massive assault on free speech. So that hurts in the short term, and it hurts more in the long term because it means that these people will not be validators for Trump with this group of apolitical, mostly young men who move to Trump in 2024."
Pfeiffer's comments come at a time when Kimmel is set to return from an "indefinite" suspension that he was handed last week. FCC chair Brendan Carr has doubled down on his threat to remove Kimmel from the air.