Comedian Whitney Cummings Reveals Netflix Chopped Her Donald Trump Joke From 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Comedian Whitney Cummings said that Netflix cut her joke about President Donald Trump from a taping of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony honoring late-night host Bill Maher after Kennedy Center employees asked them to.

Netflix stated that while their preference is not to edit sets, the Kennedy Center holds the contractual right to remove material from the broadcast.

The joke in question made a direct reference to Trump's past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Cummings ended her live performance with the line, which subsequently leaked to the press before the broadcast edit.

“I actually heard Trump may come tonight, but he couldn’t make it. He got caught in s-- traffic,” she quipped in the line that was cut from the taping.

In an episode of her “Good For You” podcast, Cummings explained that organizers warned her Trump could sue over the bit.

“Not only did I have to cut a joke in rehearsal, then the joke I did, I ended on, … it stayed in, and then they said, ‘We would like to cut it out,'” she said.

She continued, “They said, ‘We need to cut it from the broadcast,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, it’s already out there. Who cares?’ And they’re like, ‘He will sue you.'”

“They were like, you’ll always have this hanging over your head, and you never know when he’ll get bored and strike out of left field,” she said.

Cummings added that she chose not to fight the cut because venue staff feared they would lose their jobs if the joke remained in the final Netflix edit.

“I was practicing my jokes, and people were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get fired if you say that,'” she said. “And I’m like, that is the worst thing you can hear as a comic; it was kind of roast-y. … What a dork, I’m like, if he even watches this, he is such a dork. But I did cut a joke, and I feel the need to just say it: … ‘For Trump to put his name on the Kennedy Center, this is petty even for him, but Trump has always hated John F. Kennedy because the Kennedys had Marilyn Monroe killed before he had a chance to grab her by the pu---.'"

The other Trump joke Cummings delivered targeted his leadership of the venue itself, joking that the Kennedy Center's fall program would feature a "three-month run of White Hamilton,” mocking the president's influence as the chairman of The Kennedy Center board.

Cummings actually performed at the 2011 Roast of Donald Trump. Reflecting on the event, she has stated that it was actually the turning point that launched his political career. She revealed that comedians were warned backstage that he was considering running for president. After her set, she claimed Trump whispered in her ear: "That was great television," leading her to call him a "media genius" for how he weaponized the event to appeal to his base and frame himself as a victim of Hollywood elites.