Jimmy Fallon responds to Trump's rant: 'Shouldn't he have more important things to do?'

'Melania, if you’re watching, I don’t think your anti-bullying campaign is working'

Jimmy Fallon has largely swerved away from outright political statements, unlike many of his fellow late-night hosts.

A stance which became downright unavoidable when Donald Trump directly targeted the comedian on Twitter, after he'd stated in an interview that he "made a mistake" during the September 2016 episode of his show, when he asked to mess up Trump's combover.

"Jimmy Fallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous 'hair show' with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), & that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have 'humanized' me-he is taking heat. He called & said 'monster ratings.' Be a man Jimmy!," the US president wrote on Twitter.

During his first monologue since the incident, Fallon said: "Before we begin, I just want to give a shout out to our show's #1 fan: the President of the United States. As you may have heard, last night, the President of the United States went after me on Twitter. So Melania, if you’re watching, I don’t think your anti-bullying campaign is working."

"When I saw that Trump insulted me on a Twitter, I was going to tweet back immediately, but I thought, 'I have more important things to do.' Then I thought, 'Wait – shouldn’t HE have more important things to do?' He's the President of the United States!"

The host then joked that it was the only thing he had in common with NFL players, before stating he was making a donation in Trump's name to RAICES, or the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services: a non-profit organisation providing free or low-cost legal assistance to immigrant children and refugees in Texas.

The organisation last week raised more than $18m (£13.6m) through a Facebook crowdfunding campaign to help migrants currently detained at the US border due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” illegal immigration policy.

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