Why Jimmy Fallon doesn’t deserve blame for treating Trump too humanely

This past weekend, Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump was invited on a segment Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. The segment infuriated netizens, who said Fallon treating Trump “too humanely”, something I’d like to express my opinions about.

In a nutshell, Trump was invited to the Tonight Show. Much like any other guest, the two had a chat. The interview ended with Fallon asking Trump, “the next time I see you, you could be the president of the United States.” Next, Fallon proposed they do something “that”s just not presidential, really, something that we could do now that we’re both just civilians”, and recorded a scene messing up Trump’s hair.

Other questions were asked, not coming close to the pitfalls of the Trump campaign, such as “There’s kids watching at home right now … Why should they want to grow up and be president?” and  “Have you ever played the board game Sorry?” The closest things got to the real deal was when the two discussed Trump’s frequent praise of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Trump brushed it off as diplomacy.

Internet rage soon began. Debate sparked across social media platforms like Twitter, with many people saying Fallon was “too loving”, and shouldn’t have treated a xenophobic like Trump so humanely. Others compared Fallon with other entertainers, such as Seth Meyers who stood firm on a Trump ban, and said Fallon had “lost his dignity” by not being rough on Trump.

I’d like to make it very clear that I do not support Trump, given his Mexico “build wall policy”, and getting Mexicans to pay for it. His idea of kicking Muslims out of America is pure xenophobia. However, I don’t think Jimmy Fallon, deserves blame for treating Trump “too humanely”.

It’s important to understand Fallon is a comedian, not a journalist. His role is to entertain his audience through his jokes and serve as a welcoming talk show host to his guests, not to stand up for the political views of people. He is thus free to treat his guests the way he believes his audience finds most entertaining. And if that means focusing on silly jokes, and not going into Trump’s political flaws, he should be respected for doing it.

If you take a look at Fallon, throughout his career, he’s built up a loving personality, as opposed to other political comedians in the entertainment sector. There’s nothing bad about that, it’s just his style. He has no intention of building enemies anytime soon.

Fallon has been welcoming to politicians on his show in the past, and treated them nicely, if not more “humanely”.  As a talk show host, it comes as an obligation to do the same for Trump, regardless of Trump’s unreasonable political agenda.

I admit, Fallon’s statement about “Trump possibly being the President the next time he saw Fallon” may have been controversial, but as much as we don’t want to admit it, we’ve got to accept the fact that Trump is the current Republican nominee. Possibly the next President of the United States is a fact, and Fallon’s words were not a display of bias. Much like any journalist uses the title “possible US President” in their stories, Fallon was just stating facts, and there’s no reason he deserves blame.

It’s time people look at things from Fallon’s point of view, and stop accusing him for being too humane with Trump.