Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel escalated his long-running feud with President Donald Trump this week after Trump renewed calls for ABC to drop “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” In a Truth Social post early Thursday, Trump called Kimmel “a man with no talent,” pointed to what he described as poor ratings, and urged the network to “get the bum off the air.”
Kimmel replied in Thursday night’s monologue, telling the president he would leave television “when you go,” joking about the pair riding off together. He said he heard about the post from his wife, made breakfast for his kids, then went to work. Kimmel capped the segment by reusing Trump’s recent “quiet, piggy” insult aimed at a reporter who pressed him about Jeffrey Epstein.
The spat arrives two months after ABC briefly suspended Kimmel’s show. The network halted production for five days after Kimmel discussed the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and criticized efforts to score political points from the killing. Trump applauded the hiatus during a U.K. visit, saying Kimmel had been removed for weak ratings and urging similar action against other late-night hosts who mock him. Kimmel returned on Sept. 23 and argued that pressure on affiliates and regulators, not content standards, drove the decision.
Trump’s latest post followed Kimmel’s jokes this week about newly released Epstein-related documents and the president’s repeated suggestion that outlets giving him “negative” coverage could face review of their local broadcast licenses. Civil-liberties advocates and some lawmakers say federal regulators have no authority over satirical speech and warn that license threats aimed at critics risk narrowing public debate. Trump allies answer that Kimmel’s monologues now function as partisan messaging, and they say broadcasters have every right to drop talent they view as inflammatory.
ABC has not commented on the new demand, and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” remains on its normal schedule.
