Late night host Jimmy Kimmel responded on Wednesday to former President Trump’s pointed social media post slamming Kimmel earlier in the day.
“It seems that I once again upset the former president, who is apparently still upset about my joke about him at the Oscars,” Kimmel said at the beginning of his monologue on Wednesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show.
“You know Donald Trump is in the first week of a criminal trial, the first president to be on trial for a criminal offense, for paying hush money to a pornographic film star,” Kimmel continued.
Even though Trump was in court all day Monday and Tuesday, he took Wednesday off to write the post criticizing the late night host, Kimmel informed the audience.
“He got up early to post 165 harsh words about me,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel’s comments come after the Truth Social post from the former president on Wednesday, in which Trump attacked Kimmel. The former president called the late night host “stupid,” and “fool” and criticized his performance as Oscars host. Trump famously criticized Kimmel during the awards ceremony last month, and Kimmel then read Trump’s post aloud on live television, as a real-time review of his performance.
“Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his terrible performance and significant decline in ratings as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night,” Trump wrote Wednesday, later adding, “Supposedly his wife, and even management, begged him not to do it, ‘DON’T READ HIS TRUTH, JIMMY, PLEASE DON’T DO THIS,’ they said.”
“He was made to look like a FOOL, which he is, and at the same time go down in Television History as the WORST HOST EVER OF THE ONCE VAUNTED ACADEMY AWARDS!” Trump continued.
Kimmel later added in the Wednesday broadcast that despite being a former president currently on trial with 34 criminal charges against him in the hush money case, Trump is “still mad about the Oscars.”
“This was five weeks ago. My parents don’t even care anymore. The only person still talking about this joke is him. It really must have gotten to him,” Kimmel continued.
Kimmel went through Trump’s entire Wednesday post to push back on separate claims Trump made.
“There’s only one person who suffers from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’ His name is Donald Trump,” Kimmel said, responding to Trump’s claims that he suffers from “TDS.”
Kimmel also pushed back on Trump’s suggestion that Kimmel’s wife “begged him not to” read Trump’s tweet aloud at the ceremony.
In a nod to Will Smith’s rebuke of Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars, Kimmel said, “And by the way, keep my wife’s name out of your eff-ing mouth.”
Kimmel showed that ratings were up this year for the awards show, despite Trump’s claim otherwise. He also noted that he was asked to host the Oscars again next year, pushing back on Trump’s claim that he is the worst host in history.
Jimmy Kimmel said he didn't plan to host the show again next year, but now he might because they asked him. He joked that maybe the guys at Rikers could watch the show on the TV in the rec room.
