Comedian Whitney Cummings is claiming that one of her jokes about President Donald Trump was cut from Netflix’s Mark Twain Prize special honoring Bill Maher.

Cummings, who was among those who paid tribute to the “Real Time” host at the Kennedy Center ceremony last month, made headlines with an edgy jab about the president, telling the audience, “I actually heard Trump may come tonight, but he couldn’t make it. He got caught in sex traffic.”

Cummings said her routine was meddled with.

“Not only did I have to cut a joke in rehearsal, then the joke I did — I ended on ‘Donald Trump couldn’t make it tonight, he got caught in sex traffic’ — it stayed in, and then they said, ‘We would like to cut it out,'” Cummings said on Saturday’s installment of her “Good for You” podcast.

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She clarified that the Kennedy Center staff as being “amazing” and said they “did their job,” noting that Trump was their boss since he was made chair of the Kennedy Center board.

“I was presented with a tricky conundrum. I just don’t know if I did the right thing or not,” Cummings said. “It was very clear to me that they would lose their jobs.”

“The joke was already leaked by someone that was in the audience… but then they said we need to cut it from the broadcast. And I’m like, ‘Well it’s already out there. Who cares?’ And they’re like, ‘He will sue you.’ Which is like, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it, No. 1. No. 2, he might,” Cummings chuckled before referencing Trump’s infamous 2013 lawsuit against Maher after he joked Trump was the son of an “orangutan.”

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She said she felt the need to fight for the joke because it was the Mark Twain Prize.

“This is the only time that you shouldn’t get censored, because it is about comedians using humor to criticize our elected officials,” she said. “So I was in this jam where I was like… I need to fight for this joke because it’s the Mark Twain Prize. And this is the time I feel like I have to, but also I don’t want anyone losing their job.”

Construction workers build scaffolding near the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Cummings went on to shrug off the potential threat of a Trump lawsuit against her, confidently saying, “I would win.”

Netflix pointed the finger at the Trump-controlled Kennedy Center, telling Fox News Digital, “While it’s our preference not to cut jokes from anyone’s set, The Kennedy Center has the contractual right to do so.”

“Edits to a show are always made in a collaborative way to produce the best product for broadcast,” a spokesperson for The Kennedy Center told Fox News Digital about its partnership with Netflix. 

In a previous podcast, Cummings revealed she was forced to cut another Trump joke from her set, this one pertaining to his “petty” move to add his name to the Kennedy Center and that Trump allegedly “always hated” John F. Kennedy, resulting in a vulgar punchline involving Kennedy’s affair with actress Marilyn Monroe.

“I was practicing my jokes and people were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get fired if you say that.’ I’m like, that is the worst thing you could hear as a comic,” Cummings recalled. “I did cut a joke, and I feel the need to just say it.”

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President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Saul Loeb/Pool – Getty Images)

A Kennedy Center source familiar with the production told Fox News Digital that Cummings’ comments have “no validity” and that the center “would never fire anyone for a joke.”

They also insist there wasn’t foul play when it comes to the Trump joke being cut, saying it’s “normal course” for the show to be cut down due to time constraints and that it’s “standard practice,” pointing to jokes cut last year from its special honoring Conan O’Brien. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

The Mark Twain Prize special honoring Maher began streaming on Netflix on Tuesday. The “sex traffic” jab did not appear during Cummings’ routine.

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