Late-night hosts grapple with Trump's return to office: "A long national nightmare has been sworn in again"

The late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon reacted to President Trump's return to the White House on Monday, characterizing the president's swearing-in as a "long national nightmare."

"Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and like Martin Luther King, I also had a dream. I mean, it had to be a dream, right?" Meyers said at the start of his NBC show, "Late Night." "It’s too weird to be real," he added.

So, that’s it, right? We can now move on from the news and leave behind the headlines? Oh s---, right, Donald Trump is now the president of the United States. Oh, yeah. Right, right. F--- me!

Meyers commented on Trump's speech, characterizing it as a "disconcerting blend of menacing fascism and bizarre nonsense that only Trump and his followers find appealing."

On Monday, Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, but the late-night hosts, who generally supported Biden and Harris, mocked the ceremony and the new president.

On "The Late Show" on CBS, Colbert announced, "It's official: Donald Trump has been elected president once more."

"Where do we begin? Off we go, first of all. Do you make sense of today? How did we get here?" Colbert added.

On NBC's "Tonight Show," Fallon faced backlash when he announced, "Today, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States."

He responded to the crowd's reaction by saying, "We're all united. That's great to know."

On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC, Kimmel shared his morning routine, which began with his son urinating in bed and his dog defecating in the hallway. He described it as a prelude to the inauguration.

At noon today, the long-standing national nightmare officially began with the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the first convicted felon to hold the office of president of the United States, according to Kimmel, a frequent critic of the president.

During an October interview, Kimmel admitted that he was not mentally prepared for Vice President Harris possibly losing the election to former President Trump.

Kimmel admitted to Scarborough that he wasn't mentally prepared for the possibility of a loss and wasn't ready for either scenario. He said he wasn't looking forward to constantly discussing Trump.

Kimmel stated that the next morning, he would have to discuss what occurred or did not occur and the message he wanted to convey to the show's viewers. He emphasized that while most of his shows were not significant, this particular one seemed more important due to the numerous individuals asking for his opinion and following it, making it a considerable responsibility.