NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers is currently in the middle of a seven-week summer hiatus, but on Wednesday, Meyers and show producer/writer Sal Gentile put out a podcast on the show’s YouTube page where they discussed some of the topics they would have covered if the show was on the air. One of the topics was President Trump’s recent plane switch in Turkey, which led Meyers to wonder if the White House Correspondents’ Dinner should now come to an end.
Meyers wondered, “Do you think now the press should stop doing the White House Correspondence Dinner after we know the president put them all in a plane that was a decoy plane? So the president was in a different plane because it was too dangerous to be on the plane that the press was on.”
NBC's Seth Meyers is the midst of a 7-week hiatus, so he's filling the time podcasting about what would've been. Recapping the Turkey plane switch, Meyers asks writer/producer Sal Gentile, "Do you think now the press should stop doing the White House Correspondents' Dinner after… pic.twitter.com/F9nJmDIzny
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 20, 2026
Still, Meyers continued, “I mean, this story—I thought we'd heard everything that was great about—not great. Let me stress. None of it's great. It had heard all the craziest details about President Trump leaving Turkey on the old Air Force One. And yet it turns out that he moved to a decoy—sorry, he moved to another plane, the press. And some of the staff were on a plane, assuming he was on that plane. He wasn't on that plane because it wasn't safe to be on that plane.”
For his part, Gentile did not give a serious answer, instead joking that, “So my answer to your question was, I think they should only do it, the White House Correspondence Dinner, if everybody can fit into the catering cart and do it there.”
Meyers played along, “I will say if it was fun, if it was a good-natured thing, it would be very fun if he said he wasn't coming and then a big catering truck drove down in the middle aisle. And they played, just, like rock and roll music, and came out of the back. Do you know—I will say this—do you know how real the risk has to be to also risk letting him just have — just run wild in a catering truck?”
It is unlikely that anybody would mourn the end of the WHCD, but ending it over a Secret Service operation in a foreign country designed to protect the president would be the worst reason to do so. If Meyers actually means simply not inviting Trump to it, that would be even more impossible to defend.
Here is a transcript for the August 19 show:
NBC A Closer Look Out of Office
8/19/2026
SETH MEYERS: Do you think now the press should stop doing the White House Correspondence Dinner after we know the president put them all in a plane that was a decoy plane? So the president was in a different plane because it was too dangerous to be on the plane that the press was on.
SAL GENTILE: Yeah. Yes.
MEYERS: I mean, this story—I thought we'd heard everything that was great—
GENTILE: Yeah.
MEYERS: — about—not great. Let me stress. None of it's great. It had heard all the craziest details about President Trump leaving Turkey on the old Air Force One.
GENTILE: Yeah.
MEYERS: And yet it turns out that he moved to a decoy—sorry, he moved to another plane, the press. And some of the staff were on a plane, assuming he was on that plane. He wasn't on that plane because it wasn't safe to be on that plane.
GENTILE: Yes. Yes. That's right. In fact, he hid in a catering cart—
MEYERS: Yeah.
GENTILE: —to go from the decoy plane to where he would actually fly from.
MEYERS: Yeah.
GENTILE: So my answer to your question was, I think they should only do it, the White House Correspondence Dinner, if everybody can fit into the catering cart and do it there.
MEYERS: I will say if it was fun, if it was a good-natured thing, it would be very fun if he said he wasn't coming and then a big catering truck drove down in the middle aisle. And they played, just, like rock and roll music, and came out of the back.
Do you know—I will say this—do you know how real the risk has to be to also risk letting him just have — just run wild in a catering truck?
GENTILE: I don't know if this is in the article. But reportedly, he — it only was only a five-minute walk from one plane to the other. Reportedly, he was in there for 24 hours.
