{"id":339583,"date":"2026-03-20T18:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339583\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T18:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:49:11","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-on-trump-pearl-harbor-joke-everything-he-knows-about-it-begins-and-ends-with-the-ben-affleck-movie-late-night-tv-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339583\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel on Trump Pearl Harbor joke: \u2018Everything he knows about it begins and ends with the Ben Affleck movie\u2019 | Late-night TV roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a> on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s snafu while meeting Japan\u2019s prime minister, his caginess over Iran<\/a>, and new findings in the Epstein<\/a> investigations.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Kimmel<\/p>\n

On Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!, the host discussed Trump\u2019s visit to Japan and meeting with Sanae Takaichi. As a welcome gift, the prime minister presented the US president with 250 cherry trees to commemorate the upcoming 250th US anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a guy who paved over<\/a> the Rose Garden,\u201d commented Kimmel. \u201cWhat is he going to do with 250 cherry trees? He\u2019ll probably use them to build a Waffle House or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s main agenda for the Takaichi meeting was to convince Japan to support his ongoing war in Iran<\/a>. When asked in a press conference why he did not tell US allies of the attacks in advance, he said<\/a>: \u201cWe wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn\u2019t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we should be grateful he didn\u2019t do an accent,\u201d joked Kimmel. \u201cWhat is going through that orange head of his there? There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that everything he knows about Pearl Harbor begins and ends with the movie<\/a> starring Ben Affleck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel then moved on to developments in the Epstein files investigations. Despite Trump\u2019s claims<\/a> that Epstein was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago, a newly unredacted 2009 email between Trump and Epstein\u2019s attorneys shows Trump saying that Epstein was \u201cnot a member. May have been a guest. Never asked to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis document from 17 years ago would indicate that the president of the United States isn\u2019t telling the truth,\u201d said Kimmel, pretending to be shocked.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the partial US government shutdown has resulted in long airport lines<\/a> across the country, with 50,000 TSA agents working without pay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them from the TSA are reported to be selling blood to pay their bills,\u201d said Kimmel, \u201cwhich is even harder for TSA agents because they\u2019re not allowed to put their blood in containers larger than 3oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seth Meyers<\/p>\n

Seth Meyers<\/a> also poked fun at Trump\u2019s comments about Pearl Harbor to Takaichi, the prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Why didn\u2019t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?\u2019\u201d the host asked, quoting Trump. \u201cUh, I guess because neither of you had been born yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d continued Meyers. \u201cDo you mean the movie Pearl Harbor? Because Japan<\/a> didn\u2019t do that. We did that to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the press conference, Trump praised Takaichi\u2019s English speaking, adding that he hadn\u2019t picked up Japanese yet. \u201cOh, nobody thought you had picked up Japanese,\u201d deadpanned Meyers. \u201cYou already have your hands full with English.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked yesterday if he would send more troops to Iran<\/a>, Trump said: \u201cIf I were, I certainly wouldn\u2019t tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Meyers\u2019 mind, that spoke volumes. The host called the comments \u201cextra rude, considering who asked\u201d, before flashing up a picture of JD Vance.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Markwayne Mullin\u2019s nomination for homeland security secretary was advanced<\/a> by a key Senate committee. The former Oklahoma senator said that when he was first elected to Congress, he did not know how to tie a necktie.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think we made it clear that\u2019s not disqualifying,\u201d said Meyers. \u201cThe dress code is slowly turning into custody-hearing casual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday also saw Trump meet with Miche\u00e1l Martin, Ireland\u2019s prime minister, as part of the annual Shamrock Bowl presentation<\/a>. The president told the press that he \u201cfeels like\u201d he has Irish blood, adding: \u201cI\u2019m not too far, I have Scottish blood. Is that good or bad?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd long story short, we\u2019re in another war,\u201d joked Meyers.<\/p>\n

The host then turned to lighter subjects with the news that the most popular US puppy name is Luna. \u201cThe least popular name is still Ghislaine,\u201d Meyers quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ghislaine walked out and got lost, you wouldn\u2019t walk out and yell that name,\u201d he said. \u201cThat dog\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-339583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}