NEWSKathy Griffin Revists Trump Photo Controversy, Jokes About Barron Sending Her Secret Notes Saying 'Don't Kill my Daddy'
Kathy Griffin joked about Barron Trump’s notes as she revisited Donald Trump photo controversy.
Sept. 10 2026, Published 5:27 a.m. ET
Kathy Griffin is looking back at the controversy that nearly derailed her career.
The comedian, 65, revisited the infamous 2017 photo scandal ahead of another leg of her New Face, New Tour shows. Griffin faced intense backlash after posing for a photo holding a fake, bloodied head made to resemble President Donald Trump.
Kathy Griffin revisited the 2017 Donald Trump photo scandal.
Kathy Griffin Joked About Barron Trump’s Alleged ‘Don’t Kill My Daddy’ Notes
Kathy Griffin faced major career fallout after the Donald Trump photo.
Nearly a decade later, Griffin said she has reached a point where she can joke about the controversy without letting it define her.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, “I am the unsinkable Kathy Brown. I’m the unsinkable Molly Griffin,” she said, referencing Titanic survivor Molly Brown and Kathy Bates’ character in the 1997 film Titanic.
“I don’t want to kill the president! I’m not trying to kill the president!” the actress added.
When suggested that many people probably did not actually believe she wanted to kill Trump, she had a particularly cheeky response.
“Barron does,” she joked, referring to Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump.
“He’ll send me a note once a month just saying, ‘Don’t kill my daddy.’ But, you know Barron, he’s the sensitive one. What can I do?” she quipped.
Kathy Griffin Admitted She Went ‘Way Too Far’ With Controversial Image
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Kathy Griffin said her comedy had taken on a bigger purpose.
Griffin’s comments come years after she publicly apologized for the controversial image. At the time, she admitted she had “crossed a line” and said, “I went way too far.”
The touring comedian has since rebuilt her career largely on her own terms. She recalled how, after the controversy left her with few work opportunities, she put together her own world tour. She also continued returning to the stage despite the professional and personal consequences.
“I’ve scraped my way back into touring and I will keep pushing and I won’t give up,” the Suddenly Susan alum previously stated on X.
Kathy Griffin wanted audiences to laugh through ‘so much darkness.'
Now, she says her comedy has an even bigger purpose. With her latest tour, the entertainer wants audiences to have a place to escape the heaviness of the world, even if only for a few hours.
“This might sound corny, but I’m on a mission, because the state of the world is hard to laugh at these days. I want to earn the compliment I sometimes get, which is someone saying that there’s so much darkness going on in the world, so much hatred, racism, misogyny, it was good to go to a theater and blow off steam laughing for a couple of hours," she said.
