Trump tried to get DOJ to go after Saturday Night Live for mocking him: report

A new report from Rolling Stone claims that former President Donald Trump wanted to use the United States Department of Justice to go after late-night comedians who made fun of him.

In a lengthy report on Trump's second-term ambitions, sources told the publication that Trump believed that comedians who mocked him on television were guilty of giving what amounted to illegal campaign contributions to Democrats.

"As president, Trump briefly attempted to get Justice officials to twist campaign finance laws and the federal equal-time rule to declare that anti-Trump material broadcast by Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and others was somehow illegal," the publication writes.

"During his 2024 campaign, according to a source with direct knowledge, Trump has raised this topic again, venting about the need to punish late-night comedians for giving “illegal” campaign contributions to the Democratic Party — in the form of jokes and on-air satire."

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While career officials at the DOJ ignored these orders from Trump during his first term, the publication notes that they could actually become a reality should Trump win a second term given how much his allies have worked to weed out anyone who might be disloyal to his agenda.

“There are no guardrails,” Yale scholar Jason Stanley told Rolling Stone of Trump. “He already has control of any institutions that might stop him.”