Donald Trump Takes Shot at Jimmy Kimmel While Awarding Kennedy Center Honorees
What To Know
- President Donald Trump reignited his feud with Jimmy Kimmel by criticizing the late-night host while discussing his own role hosting the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors.
- Trump continued to mock Kimmel’s talent, calling the host “horrible.”
- Kimmel has previously responded to Trump’s repeated insults with humor on his show, thanking Trump for boosting his profile and viewership.
The rivalry between Donald Trump and Jimmy Kimmel continued over the weekend when the President took a swipe at the late-night host while awarding the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees at the White House.
Speaking to reporters after the medallion ceremony, which took place in the Oval Office on Saturday (December 6), Trump looked ahead to the Kennedy Center Honors, which he hosted on Sunday night (December 7).
“We have never had a President hosting the awards before. This is the first,” Trump said, per Deadline. “I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say he was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation. No, we’ll do fine.”
He then revealed he’d “watched some of the people that host” in preparation for his own hosting gig. “Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” he stated. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be President.”
Kimmel has never actually hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, though he did appear on stage in 2012 to praise legendary late-night host David Letterman. Previous hosts have included Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Close, Walter Cronkite, Stephen Colbert, and Letterman himself.
The latest insult comes after a year of back-and-forth jabs between the President and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host. In September, ABC suspended Kimmel following remarks he made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. His suspension was lifted less than a week later; however, in that time, Trump celebrated Kimmel’s removal from the air.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” wrote Trump on Truth Social at the time. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Trump has continued to launch insults at Kimmel since then, including late last month, when he demanded that ABC “get the bum off the air.” He added, “Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?”
Kimmel fired back on his late-night show, noting how the time-stamp of Trump’s post was very revealing. “[He posted] 11 minutes after the show ended on the East Coast. Which is nice… he watches us live,” the comedian quipped. “Thanks for watching us on TV instead of on YouTube. We appreciate that. It’s viewers like you who keep us on the air, ironically.”
Last week, Kimmel jokingly thanked Trump again, this time for helping make him “the third most trending person in the world” this past year.
“I just want to say, none of this would ever have happened without the support of loyal viewers like President Trump, who has done so much this year to raise awareness of our show,” Kimmel stated. “Thank you, Mr. President, for making me No. 3 in the world.”
This year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients included actor Sylvester Stallone, glam rockers Kiss, country music star George Strait, disco diva Gloria Gaynor, and actor-comedian-singer Michael Crawford.
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