The iconic talk show host decried Kimmel’s suspension during an appearance Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York.

“This is misery,” Letterman said, discussing the suspension at length with the interview host and editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

“We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”

In his 30-year career as a talk show host, Letterman said he’d never felt pressure from the White House after poking fun at former presidents from Jimmy Carter through Barack Obama, the way current show hosts are being pressured by the Trump administration.

“And attacked these men mercilessly,” Letterman said. “Beating up on these people, rightly or wrongly, accurately or perhaps inaccurately, in the name of comedy, not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency, let alone the dreaded FCC, Republican or Democrat. Never.”

Letterman said he’d texted with Kimmel since the announcement came down, drawing laughs from the audience when he said that Kimmel was “up in bed, taking nourishment,” and that the canceled host was “going to be fine.”

While Letterman said he was not overly concerned about Kimmel’s immediate well-being, he said the show’s cancellation may have been “premeditated at some level,” given that Trump had alluded to Kimmel’s removal after the July announcement that Colbert’s show would be taken off air next year.

On July 18, in a Truth Social post, Trump celebrated Colbert’s cancellation, writing, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”

“The institution of the president of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show,” Letterman said. Adding that Kimmel’s removal from late-night TV was “predicted by our president right after Stephen Colbert got walked off.”