Donald Trump has many enemies. The ayatollahs of Iran, Democratic politicians across America, windmills, and the phrase “Is Pepsi OK?” — to name a few. But no feud seems to brew more consistent passion within the commander in chief than his vendetta against late-night comedy, particularly against ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.
It’s easy to forget that before he was a plague on our politics, Trump was a caricature for “American rich guy.” Three wives, lots of money, a golden toilet, and loads of opinions. He was a regular guest on talk shows, radio, and even late-night television.
One of the major early personal sacrifices of Trump’s decision to enter the Republican primaries as a right-wing nativist in 2015 was a break with the mostly supportive, ostensibly liberal social and media circles that had surrounded him during his time as the proverbial king of Manhattan. Late-night shows began to mock him, parody his voice and image, and criticize his campaign — and later his presidency. Kimmel has consistently been among Trump’s most vocal roasters, and throughout Trump’s second administration, the president’s censorious tendencies dovetailed with his fixation on late-night comedians.
It’s a long feud, dating back more than a decade at this point, but here’s a breakdown of the dispute between Trump, and ABC’s flagship comedian.
In the aftermath of a shooting at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the Trump administration became fixated on a monologue Kimmel delivered days before. Given that a professional comedian had not been invited to deliver the traditional roast of the president at the event, Kimmel’s show staged their own.
At one point, Kimmel joked that First Lady Melania Trump had a “glow like an expectant widow.”
Kimmel had no way of knowing what would take place at the Correspondents’ Dinner, but in its aftermath the first lady claimed that the joke had been a call to violence against the president and not — as most assumed — a comment on his advanced age and declining health.
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel responded on his show Monday, telling viewers that it was “obviously a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.” Kimmel noted that there had been no outrage about his televised roast, which aired Thursday night, two days before the dinner.
The Trump administration was undeterred. On Tuesday, Brendan Carr’s Federal Communications Commission announced it would be directing ABC to file renewals for all their broadcast licenses within the month — a forceful investigative, potentially punitive message rarely invoked by the agency.
“I have honestly lost count of how many times the president has demanded I be pulled off the air,” Kimmel told his audience in November. “Talk about a snowflake, this guy. Every five weeks, he flips out and wants me fired.”
The comments came in response to Trump’s late-night rantings about Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s coverage of the Epstein files scandal. “Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?” Trump raged. “Get the bum off the air.”
Kimmel took it in stride. “How about this: I’ll go when you go, okay? We’ll be a team. Let’s ride off into the sunset together like Butch Cassidy and the Suntan Kid … Until then, if I may borrow a phrase from you: Quiet, piggy.”
Trump keeps attacking Kimmel, though, calling him a “horrible” host a month later. “That is very hurtful. I thought we were friends,” Kimmel responded. “I don’t know what’s going on. He is really fixated. I’m starting to think he might have a crush on me.”
In the aftermath of the assasination for Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, right wingers rushed to punish critics of the slain activist — forcing hundreds of people out of their jobs over even mild critiques of Kirk.
On September 17, ABC and Nexstar announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be preempted indefinitely.” Nexstar claimed that the suspension had been prompted by allegedly “offensive and insensitive” comments Kimmel made about Kirk. The decision came after public pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who threatened the network’s broadcast licenses.
But Kimmel had not criticized Kirk at all. He had explicitly condemned the killing and criticized MAGA voices for rushing to capitalize on the tragedy and “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” Kimmel, like much of the nation, had misidentified the politics of the shooter in his initial response.
He was kept off air for a week, with Trump saying the indefinite suspension was “Great News for America” and congratulating the network “for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
After widespread public outrage forced the network to reinstate Kimmel, the president threatened to sue ABC in retaliation.
“I think maliciously, mischaracterized,” Kimmel would later say of the controversial monologue that prompted the dispute. “I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks and I aimed to correct it.”
In the summer of 2025, CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would not be renewed, despite the host having signed a contract extension through 2026. The cancellation came amidst a major merger between Sydance Media and Paramount Global — the parent company of CBS owned by pro-Trump billionaire Larry Ellison.
As Trump celebrated the cancellation, he wrote on Truth Social that he loved that “Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
Kimmel keeps making fun of Trump on his late-night show, and Trump keeps responding. A month after the Oscars, Trump joked about the Stormy Daniels scandal, to which Trump posted another rant on Truth Social, blaming Kimmel for Al Pacino’s unorthodox announcement that Oppenheimer won Best Picture.
“Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his horrendous performance and big ratings drop as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night, right before he stumbled through announcing the biggest award of all, ‘Picture of the Year,’” Trump wrote. “It was a CLASSIC CHOKE, one of the biggest ever in show business, and to top it off, he forgot to say the famous and mandatory line, ‘AND THE WINNER IS.’ Instead he stammered around as he opened the envelope.”
Trump ranted against Kimmel as the late-night host was emceeing the 2024 Oscars. “Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars,” he wrote. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
“Also a really bad politically correct show tonight, and for years — Disjointed, boring, and very unfair,” he added.
Because Trump attacked him during the ceremony, Kimmel was able to respond in real time, in front of an audience of millions. Kimmel pulled out his phone and read Trump’s post to the audience, to laughter and applause. “See if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social?” he said, adding, “Isn’t it past your jail time?”
Trump later claimed to Fox News that Kimmel reading the post worked to his favor. “I said, ‘This guy’s even dumber than I thought,’” Trump said. “The thing went viral, it’s been all over the world now, and all he had to do is keep his mouth shut.”
The jokes keep on coming, but Trump rarely responds specifically to Kimmel. His outbursts are usually directed towards late-night comedians, in general, as, well…they’re all making fun of him incessantly. During this time period, Kimmel had former adult film star Stormy Daniels identify Trump’s penis in a lineup of mushrooms, delivered monologues about the impeachment efforts against the president, slammed Trump and Republicans over their inaction in response to mass shootings, and skewered the president’s reelection campaign.
It was later reported that in 2019 Trump asked the Justice Department if they could “probe or mitigate” Kimmel, Saturday Night Live, and other late-night institutions making jokes about it.
Rolling Stone reported in 2023 that in at least two separate phone calls after Trump had been in office for a year, his administration made clear to Disney — ABC’s parent company — that the president wanted Kimmel reined in. The calls came at Trump’s direction, after he had been incensed by Kimmel’s jokes at his expense.
In response to Rolling Stone’s story five years later, Kimmel joked: “President Karen demanded to speak to my manager.”
“You’d think the guy who fathered Eric and Don Jr. would know how to handle jokes,” he added. “Usually when [Trump] wants somebody to stop talking about him, he pays them $130,000 — he wanted me to do it for nothing!”
Trump and Kimmel’s mutually beneficial relationship during the campaign started to turn into a feud after Trump took office. In May, Kimmel gave an emotional monologue about a heart condition his then-infant had had to undergo surgery to treat, and the importance of health care access for families amid Republicans’ push to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump’s attacks on immigration, the repeal of DACA, and a whole slew of other policies would only up the tension.
Trump would go on to complain about the coverage he was receiving from shows where he had for years been a welcome guest. “Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very ‘unfunny’ & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?” Trump wrote in October 2017. “More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage?”
Trump, then a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, pulled out of a planned appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in late 2015. Kimmel told viewers that the real estate mogul had cited a “major political commitment” and joked that he would show the audience a “basketball dipped in cologne” as a replacement guest.
Two months later, Trump finally made it onto the show. The host asked him to respond to criticism of former NFL quarterback Tom Brady about their apparent friendship, ribbed him over hyperbolic health reports from his personal doctor, and presented him with a parody children’s book about “winners” and “sad little losers.”
As the campaign progressed, Kimmel — along with virtually every other late-night host — adopted the new blundering candidate as an easy target for his monologues and jokes. After Trump’s upset victory, Kimmel told viewers that Trump himself was probably surprised that he would, in fact, become president. “His plan was to go home to Mar-a-Lago, play 5,000 rounds of golf, phone into Trump TV every morning for 10 years, then die on the toilet,” Kimmel said.
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