Jimmy Kimmel Once Blasted Donald Trump for Trying to Permanently Pull the Plug on His Late Night Show
For years, there has been a continuous conflict between former president Donald Trump and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The political commentator is well-known for criticizing Trump on his well-liked Jimmy Kimmel Live program. The Republican leader made the decision to permanently pull the plug on Kimmel's show in 2018 because he was so irked by the comedian's divisive remarks and monologues.
As per Rolling Stone, Trump ordered his White House staff to call “one of Disney’s top executives … to complain and demand action … The incident was so bizarre that news of it spread around the corridors of power in Washington.” Kimmel strongly responded to Trump's bullying by saying, "This is a blatant abuse of power. I wonder if Fox News, they’re always screaming about censoring comedians, will they defend me on this? I doubt it. We have a First Amendment right that Americans a hell of a lot braver than Donald Trump died for. This is especially hypocritical coming from someone who claims to be the biggest anti-censorship defender of free speech.”
Kimmel also took a jibe at Trump's personal life by saying, “Maybe this is why Donald and Melania sleep in separate bedrooms — she was laughing too hard at my monologue at night” and “I made fun of O.J. [Simpson] a thousand times; he hasn’t tried to kill me once” and “What a plot twist, The first time Donald Trump ever tries to stop someone from talking about him on television and it’s me.” Kimmel continued, “It’s a shame [Rep.] Jim Jordan just had his big congressional hearing on the weaponization of the federal government and I couldn’t be there to testify about a president of the United States who abused his authority to silence someone who disagrees with him and tried to muzzle him.”
Kimmel further made fun of Trump, “I’m so sorry, Jim, I would have been happy to help with that. As for Trump, if you want to come on the show to tell me to be quiet yourself, we still have that arcade claw machine that the My Pillow guy got in. You can climb inside and say whatever’s on your delicate little mind.”
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Kimmel disclosed last year that he and ABC had some really serious conversations about Trump gags. The comic claims that as executives started to worry that his jokes were offending his audience, he even made a threat to cancel his show.
Kimmel told the Naked Lunch podcast, “There was at one time, maybe, I don’t know, right around the beginning of this whole Trump thing where … that was kind of hinted at, but I just said, ‘Listen, I get it. I don’t disagree. I mean, you’re right." He told the co-hosts, “I just said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, I understand and I don’t begrudge you for it, but I’m not going to do that. So if you want somebody else to host the show, then that’s fine. That’s OK with me. I’m just not going to do it like that’ … I have lost half of my fans — maybe more than that.” He added, “Ten years ago, among Republicans, I was the most popular talk show host, at least according to the research that they did.”
Their feud isn't over yet, in recent weeks, the 56-year-old late-night host has ridiculed the former president's "very dumb crime family," aggressively drawn comparisons to Adolf Hitler, and dissected his court appearances.
As per Newsweek, the comedian received a letter from the Trump organization demanding that ABC "completely retract all versions of the segment" and "publish a mutually agreeable apology… acknowledging that the segment was false and has been retracted… Unless these steps are taken immediately, TMTG will take swift legal action to uphold its rights and reputation."
Kimmel responded on his live show, saying, "This morning I woke up to a letter from the Trump media and Technology Group demanding that I apologize for and retract a statement I made on the air about his struggling social media platform, Truth Social."
