It’s been less than two months since Jimmy Kimmel was brought back on the air at ABC following a brief pre-empting due to his comments surrounding the death of Charlie Kirk, but President Donald Trump is calling for his removal yet again. His latest attacks come after Kimmel’s monologue on Wednesday, where he discussed the president’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, joking that “Hurricane Epstein” was about to “make landfall” following the passing of the measure demanding the DOJ to release more files from the investigation into the convicted sex offender. Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?” Trump said, questioning, “Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it?” He further slammed Kimmel for what he viewed as “totally biased coverage” before saying, “Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel’s jabs at Trump’s expense were plentiful during the episode, saying to the crowd, “Trump hasn’t been this nervous about signing something since Don Jr’s birth certificate.” Following the release of several files that indicated further connections between Trump and Epstein, he added that the full release would potentially let the public know the answer to the question, “what did the president know and how old were these women when he knew it?” Torching the president is nothing new for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host and neither is Trump’s outrage over his commentary. When Kimmel was first reinstated at ABC, the president threatened a potential lawsuit against the network and said, “Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings.” It’s just the latest chapter in an ongoing feud between the president and his administration against the Disney-owned network and its late-night host, though not without some serious implications.
Trump’s questioning of “TV Syndicates” echoes Kimmel’s first time being pulled off the air. Before ABC made the move itself, broadcasters Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar were the first to act, pre-empting the show from their affiliates. The decision sparked widespread backlash against all parties over free speech concerns, including a strong rebuke from SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood unions, calls for boycotts from individual stars and creatives, and mass cancellations of Disney+ and Hulu that caused the streamers’ cancellation rates to double in September. Even conservative voices, like Ted Cruz, took issue with how everything played out, beginning with FCC chair Brendan Carr’s infamous public statements pressuring broadcasters to take action. It was ultimately through such widespread outcry that all three of ABC, Sinclair, and Nexstar brought Kimmel back for what would be among his highest-rated shows ever.
‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Is Just One Part of Trump’s Ongoing War With ABC
Kimmel’s jokes didn’t just pertain to Epstein, but also spanned to slamming Trump and those in his orbit for their recent dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — he called it “an alumni dinner for the legion of doom” — among other things. He’s not the only one at ABC that the president has focused his ire on lately. On Tuesday, during an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince, he slammed ABC correspondent Mary Bruce for a question about Epstein, again expressing that the “license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake, and it’s so wrong, and we have a great commissioner, the chairman, who should look at that.” Bruce also directed a question at bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that angered the president, who again called the network’s reporting “fake news.”
Stay tuned here at Collider for more developments around Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the wake of the president’s latest criticisms.