{"id":574628,"date":"2026-04-09T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574628\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:21:08","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-steals-thunder-from-ucla-womens-basketball-team-national-champions-with-trump-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574628\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel steals thunder from UCLA women’s basketball team national champions with Trump jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCLA\u2019s national champion women\u2019s basketball team<\/a> was given an eyebrow-raising political quest by late night talk show host\u00a0Jimmy Kimmel.<\/p>\n

During a group interview on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live\u201d on Tuesday, a discussion with Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Angela Dugali\u0107 and coach Cori Close turned political.<\/p>\n

After Kimmel pointed out that former President Barack Obama made a social media post congratulating the team on their championship win, the host asked if President\u00a0Trump\u00a0had reached out yet.<\/p>\n

The players answered \u201cno\u201d in response to Kimmel\u2019s Trump question.<\/p>\n

But then Kimmel steered the conversation deeper into an anti-Trump routine.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you know he\u2019s busy. Um, he\u2019s in two weeks you\u2019ll hear from him,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cIn the event that you do get invited to the\u00a0White House\u00a0and you decide to go to the White House, I have something for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel then pulled out a silver trophy that hardly resembled the NCAA championship trophy that sat on his desk.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want you to do is bring this fake trophy we\u2019ve made to the White House. He\u2019s not going to know. But when you bring a trophy, he sometimes takes it and keeps it for himself. So, this is for you guys to take to the White House. And then you can say, \u2018President Trump, we want you to have this.\u2019 And he\u2019ll be so happy. You\u2019ll probably get an endowment and you\u2019ll be able to keep the real one,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n

Close laughed at Kimmel\u2019s joke, while the players lightly clapped their hands, exchanging light laughs.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, social media users criticized Kimmel for turning the\u00a0sports interview\u00a0into a Trump-focused rant.<\/p>\n

The champion UCLA women\u2019s basketball team were guests on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d on April 7, 2026. Disney via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kimmel joked that the Bruins should bring a fake championship trophy to the White House if President Trump invites them to visit. Disney via Getty Images<\/p>\n

UCLA won it\u2019s first women\u2019s basketball championship after beating the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday. Disney via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEven celebrating their championship he has to make it about himself and his hatred for Trump. What an a\u2014hole,\u201d one X user wrote.<\/p>\n

One X user mocked Kimmel, writing, \u201cWhat will he do when Trump is out of office? Is the show cooked?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another X user wrote, \u201cThis is funny, but I dislike that he used them to smite the frump.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA won its first women\u2019s basketball national championship<\/a> in program history this past weekend, defeating the\u00a0South Carolina Gamecocks, the team led by Dawn Staley that had reached the national title game three consecutive seasons and won it in 2024, in dominant fashion, 79-51.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCLA\u2019s national champion women\u2019s basketball team was given an eyebrow-raising political quest by late night talk show host\u00a0Jimmy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,17114,11575,10815,229930,92,20737,17392],"class_list":["post-574628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","tag-media","tag-ncaa-womens-basketball","tag-tv","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-bruins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574628","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=574628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}