Jimmy Kimmel‘s feud with President Trump continues.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host kicked off his first broadcast of 2026 pointing out that Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to host the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2025, only for it to reach 3.01 million viewers on CBS, an “all-time low” for the telecast according to Deadline.
“You know he hosted an awards show over the break,” Kimmel told viewers. “After boasting about what a great host he is and how much better he is than I am and how huge his ratings would be, Trump hosted the lowest rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time.”
Kimmel continued, “Boy, I’d hate to be the White House intern who had to tear that headline out of all the papers and eat ’em.”
The late night host then reminded Trump it might be time to leave office, as he had previously joked he would. “You know, as I recall, he said he’d step down if this happened,” Kimmel pointed out. “He said, ‘If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel, then I don’t think I should be president.’ Hey, a deal is a deal. Back to Mar-a-Lago you go.”
Kimmel is referring to a statement Trump made ahead of the awards ceremony in which he criticized other hosts. Trump said he “watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people. If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” per Deadline. Kimmel has not hosted the Kennedy Center Honors.
Trump has taken several opportunities to criticize Kimmel’s hosting skills, whether it’s on late night or at the Oscars.
In 2024, Trump ranted on TruthSocial about the “horrendous” job Kimmel did hosting that year’s Oscars ceremony, writing, “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.”
And in 2025, Trump gloated after Live was preempted for almost a week by broadcaster Sinclair over his comments regarding Charlie Kirk’s death. Later, when the show returned to air, Kimmel wasted no time in continuing his almost daily criticisms of Trump’s administration.
Trump demanded ABC take action against Kimmel’s “totally biased coverage” in another post on TruthSocial.
“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?” he ranted. “Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it? Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs on weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on ABC.
