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Donald Trump called Jimmy Kimmel “horrible” while presenting this year’s Kennedy Center honorees with medals during a Dec. 6 event
“If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” Trump said
An ongoing feud between the pair escalated when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended for multiple episodes in September
Donald Trump took another shot at Jimmy Kimmel, this time while presenting the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals.
The president, 79, called the talk show host, 58, “horrible” during a ceremony at the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Dec. 6, ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors, which he is hosting on Sunday, Dec. 7.
“We have never had a president hosting the awards before. This is the first,” Trump said while addressing reporters, 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 continued.
Paul Morigi/Getty
Donald Trump speaks at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception on Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Trump then compared himself to previous hosts of the annual event, saying he “watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people.”
“If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” the politician added.
The 2025 Kennedy Center Honors will celebrate Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford.
The group was picked by Trump, who said in August that he was “about 98 percent involved” in selecting the honorees after appointing himself chairman of the Kennedy Center in February.
Held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the gala honors artists for their significant impact on American culture.
Kimmel appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, during Barack Obama‘s presidency, to praise fellow late-night star David Letterman.
Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty
Jimmy Kimmel during an episode of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
Trump’s latest dig at Kimmel comes amid an ongoing feud between the pair, which escalated when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended for six days in September over comments the late-night host made following Charlie Kirk‘s death.
The politician previously weighed in on Kimmel’s hiatus during a visit to the United Kingdom, saying that the host was “fired for lack of talent.”
Last month, Trump then called the talk show host a “man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS” in a post shared on Truth Social.
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He also claimed that Kimmel’s show is “totally biased coverage,” as he wrote, “Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel later addressed the comments, saying that his wife told him about Trump’s social media post when he woke up in the morning.
“I’m the bum. I’m the bum. And he posted this, I think this is interesting, at 12:49 a.m., 11 minutes after the show ended on the East Coast, which is nice,” Kimmel teased.
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