Nikki Glaser Gets Candid About Death Threats & Being ‘Detained’ With Trump in White House

Martin Holmes March 24, 2025, 10:29 am

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Comedian Nikki Glaser has revealed she has a “real fear” of making political jokes now that Donald Trump is president again, saying she is afraid of being “doxxed,” getting “death threats,” and even “detained.”

The Golden Globes host made the comments on the red carpet at the Mark Twain Prize on Sunday (March 23), the first signature event at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since Trump took over. Glaser joined the likes of Sarah Silverman, John Mulaney, and Will Ferrell to honor Conan O’Brien, who received an award for lifetime achievement in comedy.

After returning to the White House in January, Trump took control of the Kennedy Center and fired several board members selected by former President Joe Biden. The board then voted for Trump as the new chair of the Kennedy Center.

Ahead of the event, Glaser told reporters there might be a few comedians who joked about the situation, but she expected the focus to be on O’Brien. She also said that with the tension right now, she thinks twice about making political jokes.

“Like, you just are scared that you’re gonna get doxxed and death threats or who knows where this leads, like, detained. Honestly that’s not even like a joke. It’s like a real fear,” she said, per Deadline.

“So it’s unfortunate that that’s true, but I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t think about that sometimes and go, ‘Oh, god. Can I just say, I hope they all know, I can be up on the gallows and say I was just joking. I’m a comedian.’ I hope that that’s a defense,” Glaser added.

O’Brien was selected to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor before Trump took over as chair. Before things got underway, the recent Oscars host told reporters, “Well, I don’t have any say of what any of my friends are doing.”

There were at least a handful of comedians who took shots at Trump during the event, including Silverman, who, per The Guardian, turned to the red-haired O’Brien and said, “I just really miss the days when you were America’s only orange a**hole.”

Ferrell quipped, “I’m supposed to be shutting down the Department of Education,” referring to Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education.

Mulaney, meanwhile, mocked Trump’s mentor, lawyer Roy Cohn, in addition to the President’s recent praise of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats. “It’s an honour to be here at the Kennedy Center or, as it will be known next week, the Roy Cohn Pavilion for Big, Strong Men Who Love Cats,” he joked.

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Stephen Colbert also made an appearance, joking that two new board members of the Kennedy Center are “Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor.”

Legendary late-night host David Letterman added, “I’m not a historian, but I believe that history will show in the history for all time, this will have been the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever.”

During his acceptance speech, O’Brien referenced Trump’s purge of the board, saying, “Thanks to the people who invited me here a few months ago, Deborah Rutter and David Rubenstein. Honestly, I don’t know why they’re not here tonight. I lost wifi in January. I guess they’re stuck in traffic.”