Jimmy Kimmel has hit out at US president Donald Trump in a foul-mouthed rant after being temporarily pulled off air. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled off air “indefinitely” after the ABC host made comments about the death of Charlie Kirk, a move which was celebrated by Trump.
Kimmel appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late night CBS show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – which has also been axed after he spoke out against Trump – to brand the world leader a “son of a b****”. Kimmel told Colbert: “That son of a b****! It’s really unbelievable,” and was jokingly corrected to “Mr Son of a B***”.
Kimmel then said: “I never imagined that we’d ever have a president like this and I hope we don’t ever have another president like this again.
“I never imagined there would ever be a situation in which the president of our country was celebrating hundreds of Americans losing their jobs, somebody who took pleasure in that… That to me is the absolute opposite of what a leader of this country is supposed to be.”
Colbert paid a reciprocal visit to Kimmel’s show, in which Kimmel joked: “We thought it might be a fun way to drive the president nuts. So I’m excited that Stephen is here. It’s the show the [Federal Communications Commission] doesn’t want you to see!”
Kimmel was originally suspended after telling his audience: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
But petitions were quickly launched to get the show back on air, with Trump left fuming – writing via Truth Social: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there.”