The president wrote that he plans to sue Noah for “plenty$” after the comedian joked about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender.

Donald Trump threatens to sue Trevor Noah over Epstein joke at 2026 Grammys: ‘I’m going to have some fun with you’

The president wrote that he plans to sue Noah for “plenty$” after the comedian joked about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

EW's editorial guidelines

February 2, 2026 12:13 p.m. ET

U.S. President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter in the Oval Office at the White House on May 05, 2025; Host Trevor Noah speaks onstage during the 68th Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 1, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif. Credit:

Anna Moneymaker/Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

Donald Trump is threatening legal action against comedian Trevor Noah over a Jeffrey Epstein-related joke at the 2026 Grammys. **

While hosting last night’s ceremony, the comedian and former *Daily Show* anchor poked fun at Trump’s desire to take over Greenland and his relationship with the late convicted sex offender.**

“That is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland," Noah quipped after Billie Eilish won the award for Song of the Year. "Which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out on with Bill Clinton."

Trevor Noah speaks onstage at the 68th GRAMMY Awards held at the Crypto.com Arena on February 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty

Trump reacted to the punchline in a 1 a.m. Truth Social post, calling Noah’s joke “false and defamatory” and claiming that he planned on “suing him for plenty$” in response. **

Representatives for Noah did not immediately respond to **’s request for comment.

The best and worst moments from the 2026 Grammys

Trevor Noah roasts Nicki Minaj for missing Grammys: 'At the White House with Donald Trump'

In his post, Trump called the 2026 Grammys “virtually unwatchable” and claimed that Noah was “almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards.” Kimmel, one of Trump’s longtime rivals, broke viewership records the last time that he hosted the Oscars in 2024. **

However, Trump took serious umbrage at Noah’s joke involving him and Epstein, with whom he was close friends until the early 2000s. **

“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!” Trump wrote. “I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.”

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.*****

Epstein denied that Clinton ever visited his Caribbean island, which was the alleged location where women and girls were trafficked and abused. In a 2019 statement, Clinton’s chief of staff wrote that the former president had never visited Epstein’s island and “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago.” **

Trump has similarly denied ever visiting the island, stating last July that he “never had the privilege” and had previously rejected an invitation from Epstein. He also claimed that he once kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club after he “stole people that worked for me.” Neither Clinton nor Trump has been charged with any crimes related to Epstein. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.

Davidoff Studios/Getty

"Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast," Trump continued. "It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$.” **

The former *Apprentice* host went on to reference his previous lawsuits against ABC News and CBS News, both of which ended in Trump receiving multi-million dollar settlements. He jabbed, “Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” **

Noah’s joke came just days after the Justice Department released another large batch of Epstein files as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The documents include thousands of references to Trump, as well as nods to other high-profile individuals like Elon Musk and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the AP reports. **

This isn’t the first time that Trump has threatened to sue over comments he didn’t like. Last September, he floated the idea of taking legal action against ABC after Kimmel returned to the network following his brief suspension, indicating that a lawsuit against them would be “even more lucrative” than his first settlement. In the last year alone, Trump has also filed multiple lawsuits against outlets like *The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, *and the* *BBC*. *

Noah wasn't the only person to get political at the Grammys, either. Multiple artists, including Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, used their acceptance speeches to call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid nationwide unrest over their violent operations that have resulted in multiple innocent deaths.

"ICE out," Bad Bunny, who will helm the Super Bowl halftime show this weekend, said in part. "We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans."

- Awards Shows & Events

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Grammys”