General Hospital fans fuming over Trump preempting episode following cliffhanger: 'Leave our soap...

&34;Can you please make it stop!&34; wrote one fan in response to the announcement that a Trump press conference bumped the show. &34;He's blabbing about nothing.&34; General Hospital fans fuming over Trump preempting episode following cliffhanger: 'Leave our soaps on!' &34;Can you please make it stop!&34; wrote one fan in response to the announcement that a Trump press conference bumped the show. &34;He's blabbing about nothing.&34; By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.

"Can you please make it stop!" wrote one fan in response to the announcement that a Trump press conference bumped the show. "He's blabbing about nothing."

General Hospital fans fuming over Trump preempting episode following cliffhanger: 'Leave our soaps on!'

"Can you please make it stop!" wrote one fan in response to the announcement that a Trump press conference bumped the show. "He's blabbing about nothing."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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January 20, 2026 9:11 p.m. ET

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Jane Elliot on 'General Hospital' and Donald Trump. Credit:

Bahareh Ritter/Disney via Getty; Kevin Dietsch/Getty

Donald Trump has just provoked a fearsome new adversary into action: soap fans.

*General Hospital* viewers took to social media on Tuesday to express their displeasure that a White House press conference pre-empted what was to be a climactic new episode of the long-running daily drama.

Nathan Varni, an executive at *General Hospital *network ABC, sounded the alarm around 2:30 p.m. ET, just before many affiliates air the soap.

"Hi everyone - today's episode of #GH is being interrupted by a press conference, which is beyond our control," he wrote on X. Varni noted that the network wasn't clear how substantial the interruption would be, but just 10 minutes later, he followed up with the announcement: "Due to ongoing live news coverage, today's episode will now air tomorrow."

*General Hospital* viewers across the nation and beyond, young and old, rich and poor, and for better or for worse, immediately united in their condemnation of the last-minute programming change.**

The cast of 'General Hospital'.

Bahareh Ritter/Disney via Getty

"I can't believe I have to listen to his lying ass over watching *GH*!" wrote one fan. "What was ABC thinking?"

Another peeved viewer railed, "So annoying! Why can't they wait until the evening news. This was not newsworthy! Leave our soaps on!"

Yet another fan patiently explained, "In the future, there is no need to interrupt our show for a Trump News, even MSNOW, only showed video while the anchor and guests discussed other things. ABC News can give us the bottom line during their regular evening news. None of this was breaking news."

Though even more incensed comments flooded posts announcing the preemption on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms, one other remark under Varni's announcement summed up just why this particular game of programming musical chairs stoked so much anger: "Canadian viewers — spoil it for us — was it just a daydream, or did Willow really shoot Drew with a needle?"

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Monday's episode of the longest-running scripted drama currently on television ended with a shocking cliffhanger, stacking the anticipation high around Tuesday's follow-up.

After a jury reached a not guilty verdict in the attempted murder trial against Willow (Katelyn MacMullen), the volatile former waitress, teacher, nurse, and New Tomorrow Institute spokeswoman turns on Drew (Cameron Mathison) during a private celebration. The congressman is taken completely unawares when Willow stabs him in the neck from behind with a syringe, causing him to slump to the floor and pass out before the fade to black.**

Donald Trump during a White House press briefing Jan. 20.

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter*.**

Instead of witnessing the fallout from that shocking moment, viewers were instead offered up a White House press conference commemorating Donald Trump's first year back in office, in which the president spoke for over an hour after starting nearly 50 minutes late.

During the address, Trump touched on the highly controversial raids being conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota, the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado that he has repeatedly claimed he should have won instead, and nearly shut his finger in a binder clip holding together a stack of papers he referred to as his administration's "book of accomplishments."

"Ooh, I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker," he remarked at the podium. "That could've done some damage."**

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Source: Soap

Published: January 20, 2026 at 11:57PM on Source: OPERA MAG

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