Julia Louis-Dreyfus is sounding the alarm over Donald Trump’s war on comedy.
The Emmy-winning actress opened the latest episode of her Wiser Than Me podcast by reminding listeners of what’s happened in years past, “when our government sees artists as the enemy”—with special mention of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. “I’m not sure how we got here, but all of a sudden, we live in a world where facts are disputed,” the Veep and Seinfeld star began.
Facts are “drowned in noise, and then they’re weaponized,” she continued. “It’s like there’s this attack on our ability to trust what we perceive, and then confusion and a kind of numbedification are the result.”
Louis-Dreyfus then pointed to late-night TV, Trump’s most frequent target. “I’ve done a lot of comedy in my career, and people don’t immediately think of comedy as part of the artist holding up the mirror to society thing. But of course, that’s exactly what comedy does, and that’s why it’s the comedians who go down first, the Stephen Colberts and Jimmy Kimmels.”
Louis-Dreyfus was vocal about Kimmel’s suspension from ABC last year following threats from Trump’s FCC over comments he made about MAGA’s reaction to the death of Charlie Kirk. She joined several celebrities, including ABC’s The View host Whoopi Goldberg, in signing the ACLU’s pledge to support the host at the time.
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger told the Financial Times on Tuesday that suspending the host was not a political move to appease Trump. “We thought it was in bad taste,” Iger said of Kimmel’s comments about MAGA. “We just wanted him to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”
The star was also defiant while defending Colbert after The Late Show was canceled amid the pending merger between CBS’s parent company, Paramount, and Trump-friendly conglomerate Skydance.
She posted on Instagram last July, after Paramount announced that The Late Show was canceled just days after he accused Paramount on-air of “bribing” the president, “I stand with my friend @stephenathome@colbertlateshow. And hey @cbstv, @paramountco, @paramountplus, & #ShariRedstone: ‘Institutions that are willing to sacrifice their values for the government’s favor are likely to end up with neither.’ -David A. Graham.”
Louis-Dreyfus also said that she didn’t want her take on comedy’s role in the age of Trump to sound self-important. This “isn’t to say all art is magically virtuous or anything,“ she said. ”The idea here is a basic right to freedom of expression.”
The rise of “fake news” isn’t the only thing that has defined the new era, she said, calling attention to his efforts to erase history. The president’s March 2025 executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history” and crack down on “improper partisan ideology” led to the removal of historical monuments across the country, including from national parks.
A federal judge ruled earlier this month that the administration had to halt its efforts and restore the removed memorials.
“History can be rewritten and heroes removed, but it’s harder to erase how people react to a novel or a painting or a movie,” Louis-Dreyfus said, as she argued that art is the best form of rebellion.
“Art makes its argument through feeling, and feeling stubbornly can’t be controlled,” she continued. “I can see how a good play set in, say, Gaza, or on the first tee at Mar-a-Lago, might cause a bit of a fuss. When there’s so much propaganda and chaos, the artist’s job gets more essential and frankly, more dangerous.”
