--- title: James Corden Defends Jimmy Fallon for Trump Hair Interview description: James Corden doesn't agree with those who criticized Jimmy Fallon for tousling President Donald Trump's hair. canonical: https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-23T17:05:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:11.087Z og:title: James Corden Is Defending Jimmy Fallon's Trump Interview og:description: "I don’t think anyone asked him the right questions" og:url: https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6d0186269503fea/6988adde0b72e3d1e56ebb0c/trump-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Corden Is Defending Jimmy Fallon's Trump Interview twitter:description: "I don’t think anyone asked him the right questions" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6d0186269503fea/6988adde0b72e3d1e56ebb0c/trump-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Corden Says the Criticism of Jimmy Fallon's Trump Interview Was 'Really Unfair' > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 23, 2017 5:05 PM UTC  Donald Trump during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 15, 2016. Donald Trump during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 15, 2016. NBC/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 23, 2017 5:05 PM UTC [James Corden](http://time.com/4710747/james-corden-london-attacks/) doesn’t agree with those who criticized Jimmy Fallon for [tousling President Donald Trump’s hair](http://time.com/4496425/donald-trump-hair-jimmy-fallon-tonight-show/) during his [September interview](http://time.com/4032423/donald-trump-jimmy-fallon/) on _The Tonight Show_. While speaking at PaleyFest Wednesday, the _Late, Late Show_ host came to the defense of his fellow late night pundit, asserting that he felt many were too quick to judge Fallon. “There was the thing that happened with Jimmy Fallon and he got quite a lot of criticism,” he said, according to [_Vanity Fair_](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-donald-trump). “I felt that was really unfair because I don’t think anyone asked him the right questions.” Corden went on to reveal that he would have played a game with Trump if the then-candidate had appeared on his show during the election cycle. “The game I wanted to play if he came on the show was called ‘Stand By It or Take It Back,'” he explained. “I would read Donald Trump things that he had said on the campaign trail. I would say, \[he’d\] have two paddles, you can stand by it or take it back. If you take it back, you take it back forever. If you stand by it, you’ve got to tell me why, and I felt like that was such a good game.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/"},"headline":"James Corden Says the Criticism of Jimmy Fallon's Trump Interview Was 'Really Unfair'","datePublished":"2017-03-23T17:05:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:11.087Z","description":"\"I don’t think anyone asked him the right questions\"","url":"https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","jimmy fallon","The Tonight Show","TV","Donald Trump","Late Night Television","The Late Late Show","james corden","The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon","The Late Late Show with James Corden"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6d0186269503fea/6988adde0b72e3d1e56ebb0c/trump-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6d0186269503fea/6988adde0b72e3d1e56ebb0c/trump-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 3","caption":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 3","creditText":"NBC/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4711121/james-corden-jimmy-fallon-trump-interview-critics/","name":"James Corden Says the Criticism of Jimmy Fallon's Trump Interview Was 'Really Unfair'"}}]}] ```