White House Targets The View's Joy Behar, Warns Daytime Talker Could Be 'Next To Get Pulled Off The Air'

The White House — which was apparently watching The View in real time on Wednesday — fired off a statement attacking co-host Joy Behar and suggesting the long-running daytime talker could be "the next to be pulled off air."

While President Donald Trump obviously does not have the power to directly dictate a network's schedule, this veiled threat came on the heels of CBS announcing that The Late Show is entering its farewell season — soon after host Stephen Colbert said on-air that parent company Paramount's recent $16 million settlement with President Trump was tantamount to "a bribe." (Paramount Global is waiting on Trump's FCC to approve a long-in-the-works merger with Skydance Media.)

The White House's statement (e-mailed to EW.com) was in response to a Wednesday bit that Behar did on Trump's apparent envy of former President Barack Obama, after Trump this week circulated a fake, AI-generated video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office for being, um, "sedacious." [Ed. Note: He meant seditious.]

"First of all, who tried to overthrow the government on Jan. 6?" Behar began, alluding to the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. "Let me think, who was that again...? That was not Obama.

"The thing about [Trump] is he's so jealous of Obama," Behar continued, "because Obama is everything that he is not. Trim. Smart. Handsome. Happily married.... And Trump cannot stand it. It's driving him crazy. Jealous is not–, green is not a good color."

The White House — an official institution of the United States federal government, I remind you — said in its very official statement that "Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."

The statement, sent by White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers, goes on to say, "It's no surprise that The View's ratings hit an all-time low last year" — though here in reality, the daytime talker is up 5% in audience year-over-year, and is enjoying its most-watched summer in four years.

In closing, the statement pointedly suggests that Behar "should self-reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump's historic popularity before her show is the next to be pulled off air."

ABC News/The View is not commenting on the White House's statement.

Following Behar's aforementioned bit on Wednesday's The View, fellow co-host Sunny Hostin jumped in to echo the sentiment, saying, "Obama still lives rent-free in [Trump's] head, I think Michelle Obama still lives rent-free in his head, the fact that [daughter] Malia graduated from Harvard.... It's the very swagger that Obama has, that he will never have."