![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e87f3bce4d2c46c3651c9fdd7526e4a8.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nUS President Donald Trump has unleashed on Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host was abruptly axed by US network ABC, declaring that the comedian \u201csaid a horrible thing\u201d and deserved his punishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The controversy erupted earlier this week when Kimmel suggested during a monologue that Charlie Kirk \u2013 the conservative activist who was assassinated in Utah\u00a0\u2013 may have been killed by a pro-Trump Republican. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The comments sparked fury, with Disney-owned ABC pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely amid a storm of backlash, safety concerns and legal threats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk,\u201d Kimmel said during his monologue, before taking aim at Donald Trump\u2019s public reaction to the killing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added the former president\u2019s response was \u201cnot how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?\u201d he quipped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Kirk was fatally shot while appearing at a speaking event in Utah earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kimmel, a long-time critic of\u00a0Trump, has often used his late-night platform to lampoon the former president. His latest remarks triggered swift backlash, with several ABC affiliate stations dropping the show before Disney made the call to suspend it indefinitely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should\u2019ve fired him a long time ago,\u201d Trump said during the week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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“You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for a lack of talent.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters from the White House on Saturday, Mr Trump made it clear he supported the decision. \u00a0<\/p>\n
He accused the media of dishonesty and floated the idea that networks that attack him unfairly could lose their licences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
US Senator Ted Cruz slammed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr during the week for pressuring ABC to pull Kimmel off the airwaves, warning fellow Republicans the threats create an “unbelievably dangerous” precedent that could haunt conservatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the President thought otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Brendan Carr is an incredible American patriot with courage. You know, it used to be \u2014 I remember in the old days that networks would have to get licenced, relicensed. And it was always a big deal. They had to show honesty and integrity,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a network – again, I’ll use the same numbers, whether it’s 90, or 94, or 97 – all different numbers, but when you have networks that give somebody 97 per cent bad publicity or 94 per cent bad publicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese airwaves, they make millions and millions of dollars, the news makes millions of dollars. ABC, your network wrote very badly about me, and they had to pay me 16 million dollars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The President argued that Mr Carr was right to take a hard line on broadcasters. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Carr has been under fire from Democrats, accused of abusing his power after warning that stations airing Kimmel\u2019s program could be in breach of public-interest standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Brendan Carr is a courageous person. I think that Brendan Carr doesn’t like to see the airwaves used illegally and incorrectly, and purposely horribly. He doesn’t want to see a person that won the election in a landslide get 97 per cent bad publicity,\u201d Mr Trump said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people have given your networks no credibility. They don’t give them any credibility. When they take a great success, like you often do, and you make it into like it’s a loser, or you put a negative spin on it, I don’t think that’s right. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So, I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments come as late-night stars and Hollywood insiders accuse the White House of fuelling censorship. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Kimmel, who has hosted his ABC show for over two decades, was seen entering a legal office in Los Angeles on Friday as speculation swirls about his future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disney executives are expected to meet him in the coming days, though industry reports suggest any return to air would require concessions, including an apology to Kirk\u2019s family and donations to his political non-profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The President, however, showed no sign of backing down. He broadened his attack on the media at large, warning that broadcasters had grown rich from \u201cfree airwaves\u201d while failing to uphold the principles of fairness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a licencing procedure, and you can read it as well. They have to show honesty and integrity,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump has unleashed on Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host was abruptly axed by US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2655,64,63,101272,92325,2490,134,40385,4625,104242,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-156270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brendan-carr","12":"tag-charlie-kirk","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-fake-news","16":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","17":"tag-media-networks","18":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}