A cable TV channel in the U.S. has been accused of trolling President Donald Trump ahead of his State of the Union address.
In a post shared to Threads, Ami Berger pointed out that Turner Classic Movies (TCM) was showing the 1944 film Gaslight during Trump’s speech.
What To Know
Posted under the handle @ami.l.berger, Berger shared a screenshot from the TCM website’s official listings for Tuesday night, showing that Gaslight would be on for two hours from 7 P.M. CST—the same time Trump was due to speak.
The accompanying synopsis for Gaslight reads: “A devoted bride’s groom is trying to make her insane as part of his plot to murder her.”
Writing alongside the screenshot, Berger said: “And the award for Best Troll By A Cable Channel goes to Turner Classic Movies, which will be showing GASLIGHT tonight during the SOTU.10/10 no notes.”
The post was quickly picked up by other users on Threads, earning over 19,000 likes and 1,500 shares.
Another Threads user also spotted the listing. “It might be a coincidence, but I’m laughing that TCM has programmed Gaslight opposite the State of the Union,” they wrote. “Narrator: It’s not a coincidence.”
Some pointed out that Gaslight aired at the end of an interesting day of broadcasting on the network. Earlier the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress was shown on TCM, followed by 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Later came the 1938 movie Marie Antoinette followed by 1953’s Julius Caesar. Just before Gaslight, TCM chose to broadcast Sunrise At Campobello, a 1960 film focusing on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s battle with polio early in his political career.
Newsweek has contacted TCM for comment.
Though the decision to broadcast Gaslight and these other films may be purely coincidental, that has not prevented people on social media from commenting on the situation.
Why It Matters
The term “gaslighting” originates from a 1938 British play by Patrick Hamilton. The play centers on a husband’s psychological manipulation of his wife.
In the play, the husband visits the empty apartment above them night after night, to search for the wealthy and now deceased previous occupant’s jewels. The previous tenant was murdered and the case remains unsolved. In lighting the apartment’s gas lights to aid his search, the husband caused the lights in his own apartment to dim. His wife notices this and is convinced she can hear footsteps coming from the supposedly empty apartment above when her husband is away. He dismisses both of these claims though, instead persuading her she is simply “hearing things.”
Gas Light was a success when it first debuted at the Savoy Theatre in London and eventually made its way to Broadway. Two film versions followed, most notably the 1944 U.S. production starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury. That version, retitled Gaslight, popularized the term gaslighting as a recognized psychological term for a form of coercive control and emotional abuse.
In 2022, Merriam-Webster named gaslighting its word of the year. By then, the advent of misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories had seen the term evolve to mean something broader. The Merriam-Webster definition describes it as “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage.”
The Trump administration has been accused of gaslighting on several occasions throughout Trump’s time in the White House. In January 2025, a peer‑reviewed article from the journal Signs of Society argued that Trump used “metapragmatic gaslighting,” a form of speech manipulation where he reframed the meaning of his own past statements to deny, contradict, or reinterpret them in ways that distorted reality.
What People Are Saying
Musician and podcast host Aaron Cooper on Threads: “TCM is playing GASLIGHT (1944) at the same time other networks are broadcasting the State Of The Union Address LOL.”
Publicist Danny Deraney: “The level of troll tonight by @tcm during the State of the Union is chef’s kiss.”
Comedian Patton Oswalt on Threads: “The counter programming at @tcm remains unmatched.”
Author Liz Perrine on Threads: “@tcm broadcasting Gaslight during the SOTU is peak level trolling and I AM HERE FOR IT!!!”
Ruth Zakarin, CEO of MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote on Threads: “That is art. Put it in the Louvre and don’t let anyone steal it.”
TV writer Neva Cheatwood on Threads: “i literally did a spit take when i saw what they were airing earlier today. bravo @tcm!! (great film any day. and always worth a watch).”
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