{"id":560661,"date":"2026-02-02T09:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560661\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:54:12","slug":"grammys-trevor-noah-takes-aim-at-absent-nicki-minaj-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560661\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammys: Trevor Noah’ takes aim at absent Nicki Minaj, Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Trevor Noah<\/a> once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the Grammy Awards<\/a>, taking pokes at the stars while standing right next to them, but he saved his most pointed jokes for absentees, and elicited an angry post from the president.<\/p>\n

\u201c Nicki Minaj<\/a> is not here,\u201d Noah said, to big cheers from the audience at Crypto.com Arena. \u201cShe is still at the White House with Donald Trump<\/a> discussing very important issues.\u201d <\/p>\n

Minaj this week visited and praised the president, the culmination of a move toward MAGA that she\u2019s made in recent months. <\/p>\n

Noah broke into a Trump impression. \u201cActually Nicki, I have the biggest ass, everybody\u2019s saying it Nicki.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his sixth time hosting the show \u2014 and what he says will be his last \u2014 Noah mostly played it safe during his monologue, not delving too much into much politics or controversy, at least during his monologue. There was no mention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (on a night when many attendees were wearing \u201cICE OUT\u201d<\/a> buttons). <\/p>\n

But Noah got more pointed later in the show, after Billie Eilish won song of the year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWow. That is a Grammy that every artist wants,\u201d Noah said, \u201calmost as much as Trump wants Greenland<\/a>. Which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein\u2019s<\/a> island is gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the show in a Truth Social post, Trump reacted. <\/p>\n

\u201cNoah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!! I can\u2019t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight\u2019s false and defamatory, statement, have never been accused being there, not even by the Fake News Media,\u201d the post said. \u201cNoah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I\u2019ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C.\u201d <\/p>\n

After the crowd\u2019s reaction to the joke during the show, Noah said, \u201cOh, I told you, it\u2019s my last year. What are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

At a different point in the show, Noah joked about the president\u2019s penchant for suing TV networks when he said the Grammys were airing \u201ccompletely live\u201d because \u201cif we edited any of the show, the president would sue CBS for $16 billion,\u201d referring to Trump\u2019s recent history with CBS News and a settlement he got from Paramount last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It had seemed at first like he wasn\u2019t going to go very far into such material. <\/p>\n

He said during the monologue Lauryn Hill was performing on the show for the first time since 1999. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you understand how long ago that is?\u201d he said. \u201cBack in 1999, the president had had a sex scandal, people thought computers were about to destroy the world, and Diddy<\/a> was arrested.\u201d <\/p>\n

Later in the show, Noah cozied up to the night\u2019s biggest nominee, Kendrick Lamar<\/a>, and only congratulated him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI actually thought about writing a few jokes roasting you, but then I remembered what you can do to light-skinned dudes from other countries,\u201d Noah, who is from South Africa, said in a reference to Lamar\u2019s beef with the Canadian rapper Drake that culminated in last year\u2019s big Grammy winner \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Later, he sat with Bad Bunny, and asked if he could come live with him in his native Puerto Rico if things got too bad in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrevor I have some news for you,\u201d Bad Bunny said. \u201cPuerto Rico is part of America.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Recording Academy announced less than three weeks ago that Noah was returning \u201cone final time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in term limits,\u201d Noah said during the show. <\/p>\n

Only singer Andy Williams, who hosted the Grammys seven times in the 1970s, has hosted more often.<\/p>\n

Noah himself is a four-time Grammy nominee, and was up this year in the best audio book recording category for \u201cInto The Uncut Grass,\u201d a children\u2019s story. He lost to the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nicki Minaj in several places.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

For more coverage of the 2026 Grammy Awards, visit: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/grammy-awards<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Trevor Noah once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":560662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[227539,7096,53171,276,28895,69,4662,171,57,20151,15053,31347,35670,975,5531,80,45546,235115,181253,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-560661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-andy-williams","tag-bill-clinton","tag-billie-eilish","tag-california","tag-dalai-lama","tag-donald-trump","tag-drake","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-grammy-awards","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-lauryn-hill","tag-music","tag-nicki-minaj","tag-politics","tag-puerto-rico","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-trevor-noah","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}