Seth Meyers risks another Trump catapult clash on Late Night
Meyers revisited Trump’s aircraft carrier catapult comments after the president previously accused him of obsessing over the same topic.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Seth Meyers went back to the catapult well on Thursday’s Late Night, turning his “A Closer Look” segment toward Donald Trump’s latest comments about aircraft carrier launch systems.
The topic has become familiar territory for Trump, according to Meyers, who framed the remarks as part of a longer pattern. The host also reminded viewers that commenting on it has already drawn a response from Trump once before.
“In case you’re not familiar, this is a long-running obsession for Trump,” Meyers said. “And I’m loath to even bring up his catapult obsession because the last time I did, the president posted on Truth Social that I, your beloved talk show host, ‘talked endlessly about electric catapults on aircraft carriers.’”
Meyers was referring to a previous 2025 exchange, when Trump used Truth Social to claim the late-night host was the one fixated on electric catapults. Meyers joked that the move amounted to the old “I know you are but what am I” approach.
The new round came after Trump spoke Wednesday at a defense summit at the U.S. Army War College. In those remarks, linked by PBS NewsHour and the U.S. War Department, Trump discussed battlefield technology investments and again brought up steam catapults on U.S. aircraft carriers.
Meyers focused especially on Trump’s use of the word “catapulter” while describing a technician he said he had spoken with about the project.
“Is there actually a person with the job title catapulter, or did he just make that up?” Meyers said.
The host then spun the word into a bit, imagining Trump asking to meet “the catapulter” and others being confused about whom he meant.
“The catapulter, the guy who does the catapult,” Meyers said, acting out the imagined Trump explanation. He pushed the gag further with a children’s-book riff, saying Trump might describe the person as having “a long green body and a red head” and being called “The Very Hungry Catapulter.”
The segment continued Meyers’ habit of using “A Closer Look” to pick through Trump’s public remarks and social media posts. This time, the hook was narrow but oddly persistent: aircraft carrier catapult technology, a subject that has followed Trump through multiple public comments and now at least two rounds of Meyers commentary.
For Meyers, the joke was partly the policy detail and partly the risk of reentering the argument. After Trump previously accused him of being the catapult obsessive, the Late Night host still returned to the subject, this time with “catapulter” doing most of the work.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.