Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jerry Seinfeld Calls Trump A ‘Water-Gun Clown’

(JTA) — Jerry Seinfeld called President Donald Trump a “water gun clown” and said the president’s “happy face” is terrifying.

The Jewish comedian made the critical comments in an interview Friday with New Yorker editor David Remnick at the New Yorker Festival.

“Trump’s happy face — that’s the scariest face of all time,” Seinfeld said, attributing the observation to fellow comic Colin Quinn, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “He’s kind of a water-gun clown.”

Seinfeld, 63, told Remnick that Trump did not qualify for an invitation to his web series talk show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” which then-President Barack Obama appeared on in 2015.

“You have to have some comedic credential to get on that show, and Obama was always so great at those correspondents’ dinners. He was good,” Remnick said.

Most of the interview steered clear of politics and focused on comedy. Seinfeld told Remnick he still questions the divisive series finale of “Seinfeld,” the long-running ’90s sitcom he starred in and co-created.

“I sometimes think we really shouldn’t have even done it,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on us at that time to do one big last show, but big is always bad in comedy.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.