Seth Meyers disappointed fans on Monday night, when the anti-Trump host attended the Met Gala sponsored by Trump’s billionaire friend Jeff Bezos—and then dodged questions about it.
At the event’s red carpet, Variety asked Meyers why he thought it was still “important” to attend, despite the controversy surrounding its benefactors. Meyers deflected, opting to make a joke about the spider-shaped brooches he was wearing instead: “Well, I—you know, when you have spider brooches, where else in the city are you going to wear ‘em on a night like tonight? And so, uh, ultimately, I let them make the choice.”
The non-answer drew Meyers a roasting by Redditors, who called Meyers a “Temu Jimmy Kimmel”—effectively the cheaper version of the real thing.
Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, served as honorary chairs and official sponsors for the annual event, after over a year of Bezos lining the Trumps’ pockets in various ways—like the $70 million vanity documentary, Melania, for the first lady, or new talks about reviving the Donald Trump-starmaker, The Apprentice, at Amazon.
“How embarrassing and cowardly,” wrote one user in response to Meyers’ video response. “Grow a f---ing spine and if you’re going to participate in something like this, at least have the guts to call them out when directly asked.”
Another commented, “Yeah, wild to be so boisterous when behind a camera reading words other people wrote for you, but no morals or even a point of view in reality,” while another wrote that Meyers had “a spine full of spaghetti.”
Others said they were surprised by Meyers. “Up until 18 seconds ago, I would’ve disagreed” with other commenters calling the host a “coward.”
They continued, “I like how he hasn’t ever backed down on his commentary on Trump. Hell! His roast of Trump is widely believed to be one of the reasons he ran as president,” they went on, referring to Meyers’ fateful White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2011. “But damn…that clip is disappointing.”
Meyers has consistently roasted Trump on Late Night since he took office again last year, regularly referring to his administration as an “authoritarian regime.”
And while Meyers has regularly called out the president for surrounding himself with billionaires—including making fun of MAGA supporters for getting shut out of Trump’s second inauguration in favor of “wealthy tech oligarchs” Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk—he had no qualms about supporting the Bezos-bankrolled Met Gala, which some critics believe is a move designed to mainstream MAGA and earn the billionaire and his wife cultural currency.
Celebrities were urged to boycott—and while most A-listers have had little to say publicly about their non-attendance, rumors persist that the declined invites from celebrities like Emmy-winner Zendaya and Oscar-winner Meryl Streep were intended to shun Bezos and his wife.
Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum’s director and chief executive officer, tried to stave off the backlash on Friday, telling CNN, “We will always be grateful for that support from various different sources,” and that “It’s really important for people to understand, when we talk about the Met Gala, the money really goes into preserving” the museum’s collection of fashion-related artifacts, which have become “more challenging” and “more expensive”
Still, for Meyers, supporting the event cost him some respect amongst fans, one of whom wrote on Reddit, “I’ve always been a fan of Seth and how relentless he’s been about calling out Trump,” but “This definitely shows another side of him—I would have expected a more polished answer from him.”
