Everyman host Mike Rowe called out late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his \u201ctone-deaf\u201d comments mocking new\u00a0Homeland Security\u00a0Secretary Markwayne Mullin for being a former plumber, admitting he is a \u201ctad butt hurt\u201d by the dig.<\/p>\n
The \u201cDirty Jobs\u201d veteran ripped into Kimmel over his remarks, which\u00a0some have called elitist. <\/p>\n
Rowe said he took offense at the \u201csuggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new,\u201d asking if Mullin\u2019s career progression from plumbing business owner to Congress and then to a top Cabinet official is \u201cnot the embodiment of the American Dream?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing offended is always a choice, and I don\u2019t choose to be offended by a joke, even one that comes at the expense of the skilled tradespeople my foundation tries to elevate,\u201d Rowe wrote on X. \u201cBut I am a tad butt hurt by the suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new, and that competence is somehow limited to one vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cObviously, expertise and skill are important,\u201d adding, \u201cIf I need a new kidney, I\u2019d prefer a doctor do the surgery, not a late-night talk show host. But if the doctor in question used to host a talk show, why would I hold that against him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Rowe called out late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his \u201ctone-deaf\u201d comments mocking new\u00a0Homeland Security\u00a0Secretary Markwayne Mullin for being a former plumber, admitting he is a \u201ctad butt hurt\u201d by the dig. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Kimmel, a regular critic of the\u00a0Trump administration, took flak last week for using Mullin\u2019s prior experience as a plumbing business owner as evidence that he is unqualified to lead DHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne \u2018Chuck Mike Bruce Dave\u2019 Melon \u2014 Mullin. Maybe melon\u2019s better,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cHe\u2019s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That\u2019s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cBut honestly \u2014 I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time, instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cDirty Jobs\u201d veteran ripped into Kimmel over his remarks, which\u00a0some have called elitist. ABC<\/p>\n
Kimmel later doubled down, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I\u2019m upset that he isn\u2019t still a plumber.\u201d<\/p>\n
The late-night host added, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn\u2019t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet\u2026 We all have our areas of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimmel\u2019s remarks were viewed as elitist by many commentators on X, who accused the comedian of mocking working-class professions. Among those offended by the joke was Rowe, who runs a nonprofit to promote skilled trade jobs called mikeroweWORKS.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that \u201cthe shortage of skilled tradespeople is now headline news and that closing it is nothing less than a matter of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 26, 2026 in Washington, DC. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only sensible thing to do in the wake of a moment this tone deaf is remind America that the skills gap is wide and getting wider,\u201d Rowe wrote. \u201cWhat we really need in this country are more welders who can talk intelligently about Aristotle, and more philosophers who can run an even bead. More generals, in other words, who can fix their own toilets, and more plumbers who can hold a powerful government job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what Mullin did,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a private citizen who mastered an essential skill and then turned that skill into a multimillion-dollar company that employed a lot of people and served a lot of customers. That gave him the freedom to do other things with his life, including a career in public service, which got him into Congress, where he\u2019s spent the last 11 years doing whatever congressmen do. Now, he has a very consequential position in the Cabinet of the current administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that not the embodiment of the American Dream?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get that Jimmy Kimmel might have a problem with Mullin\u2019s politics, but what possible objection could he have about the trajectory of his career, or his desire to do more than one thing with his life?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowe concluded, \u201cI\u2019d love to chat but I\u2019ve gotta pull a rat out of my toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyman host Mike Rowe called out late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his \u201ctone-deaf\u201d comments mocking new\u00a0Homeland Security\u00a0Secretary Markwayne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,17114,10815,120465,31445,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-555837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","10":"tag-media","11":"tag-mike-rowe","12":"tag-talk-shows","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}