A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free here.
“Every five weeks,” Jimmy Kimmel observed, President Trump “flips out and wants me fired.”
It happened again this week, when the president posted on Truth Social, asking why ABC keeps “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on the air.
Kimmel responded on Thursday night’s show, pointing out that Trump’s post came at 12:49 a.m., “11 minutes after the show ended on the East Coast.”
He said directly to Trump, “Thanks for watching us on TV instead of on YouTube. We appreciate that. And I’ll tell you, it’s viewers like you who keep us on the air, ironically.”
Kimmel, whose contract with ABC is coming due in May, then said, “Mr. President, I admire your tenacity. If you’re watching tonight, which I presume you are, how about this: I’ll go when you go, OK? We’ll be a team. Let’s ride off into the sunset together like Butch Cassidy and the Suntan Kid. And until then, if I may borrow a phrase from you: ‘Quiet, piggy.’”
Trump’s “piggy” remark to a Bloomberg reporter last week garnered widespread outrage this week, as did his insulting comments to ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce on Tuesday.
Trump snaps at Bloomberg reporter’s Epstein questions, telling her, ‘Quiet, piggy.’
Trump snaps at Bloomberg reporter’s Epstein questions, telling her, ‘Quiet, piggy.’
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One of Bruce’s questions about the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files prompted Trump to criticize her tone, bash ABC as a “crappy company,” and encourage the FCC to revoke the network’s licenses.
Bruce was praised by fellow members of the White House press corps for asking important questions despite the president’s demeaning comments.
After the tense Oval Office exchange, the White House generated a list of grievances against ABC and claimed the news division had decided to “wage war” against Trump and his voters.
ABC and its parent company, Disney, declined to comment, choosing to let the news division’s work speak for itself.
On Wednesday’s “Good Morning America,” co-host Robin Roberts referenced these “extremely challenging times” and thanked Bruce for “your willingness to ask these types of questions” to those in power.
The president’s latest blast against Kimmel came Wednesday night, shortly after Kimmel talked on air about Trump reversing course and signing the bill compelling the Justice Department to release Epstein materials.
“We are one step closer to answering the question, what did the president know and how old were these women when he knew it,” Kimmel quipped.
Trump wrote that Kimmel has “NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS” and asked, “Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it? Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel’s ratings are better than Trump thinks, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Trump wants to drive a wedge between Kimmel and local stations, which he called “syndicates.”
Two big owners of ABC-affiliated stations, Nexstar and Sinclair, need Trump’s man in charge of regulating stations, FCC chair Brendan Carr, to approve pending deals.
Both Nexstar and Sinclair yanked Kimmel’s show back in September when Carr denounced Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer. The highly unusual blackout spotlighted longstanding tensions between local affiliates and national networks — as well as the affiliates’ limited power.
ABC briefly suspended Kimmel’s show nationwide, but brought it back in a matter of days, leaving Nexstar and Sinclair little choice but to resume airing it.
Trump Calls for Jimmy Kimmel to Be Fired AGAIN, Threatens Members of Congress & Signs Epstein Bill
Earlier this week Carr announced that the FCC will review the relationships between networks and affiliates, though his agency has little power to effect change.
As for Kimmel, he made it sound like he’s grown accustomed to Trump’s angry posts.
“I woke up this morning, I’m in bed, my wife comes out of the bathroom, she’s got her phone,” Kimmel said. “She goes, ‘Um, Trump tweeted you should be fired again.’ I was like, ‘Oh.’ And then I went downstairs and made bagels for the kids.”
He also remarked that “if you got this many threats from a neighbor, you’d have no problem getting a restraining order. The judge would be like, ‘Yeah, sounds like the guy’s nuts.’”
Trump also recently took out his anger on another late-night comic, NBC’s Seth Meyers; last Saturday Trump said Meyers has “an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” and “NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!”
Carr reposted Trump’s message on X without any further comment.
Meyers brought up Trump’s grievance on Monday’s edition of “Late Night,” remarking that “being attacked by the president this weekend doesn’t make me special in any way, shape or form. I was simply on the same shit list as Christopher Wray, James Comey, Indiana Republicans, Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and former President Joe Biden.”