5 flashpoints from the Kimmel-Trump feud
Jimmy Kimmel and former President Trump have been engaged in a years-long feud. The late-night host frequently pokes fun at the former president, who targets him on social media.
On Sunday night, while hosting the Academy Awards, Kimmel fired back at Trump, saying that he wanted to share a "review" about his performance with the audience. He later revealed that Trump had written the review, having posted his criticism of Kimmel on Truth Social less than an hour before Kimmel read it out loud.
“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” he said, reading Trump's post to the audience. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
He then said he was "surprised" to see the former president still up and asked him, "Isn't it past your jail time?" in reference to Trump's numerous court cases.
Here are five of the other flashpoints from the ongoing Kimmel-Trump feud.
Trump appears on Kimmel in 2015
The former president made an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2015 — before he clinched the GOP presidential nomination for the 2016 election. He called for unity among the Republican Party while taking jabs at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who also made a bid for the White House in 2016.
Kimmel also unveiled a satirical children’s book that parodied Trump’s campaign rhetoric at the time, noting that he put Trump’s name as the author of the mock book, titled “Winner’s Aren’t Losers.”
“Winners aren’t losers, they’re winners — like me!” Kimmel read aloud. “A loser’s a loser, which one will you be?”
Kimmel's emotional appeal against ObamaCare overhaul
Kimmel made several emotional pleas against Trump’s and Republican lawmakers’ vows to overhaul Obamacare in 2017.
He revealed in May 2017 that his son was born with a rare heart defect. He emphasized in a tearful monologue that before ObamaCare, many people may not have been able to get health insurance if they had a preexisting health condition.
Later that year, he devoted many of his nightly monologues to urging lawmakers to vote against an overhaul of the heath care legislation, saying that Trump would “sign anything if it meant getting rid of ObamaCare” and suggesting that the then-president did not even know what was in the bill co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
After a week of emotional monologues in September 2017, Kimmel thanked then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for opposing the bill.
Kimmel's mock trailer about Trump alert system
Kimmel released a mock Hollywood-style trailer poking fun at Trump’s proposed national alert system in 2018. The late-night host said that the national alert system — which allows the administration to send a warning to all Americans in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist incident — was a “bad idea.”
The trailer focused on a family driving through the city when they notice what they assume are Trump’s tweets alerting their cell phones. The parents appear confused, because they blocked Trump on Twitter.
“This isn’t a tweet,” the man explains. “This is a text message.”
“NO COLLUSION!” the alert reads. “WITCH HUNT!”
The family later runs out of their car as other people in the city frantically react to the text messages. At one point, while chaos engulfs the streets, a man cuts off his hand to remove his smartwatch.
Kimmel rips Trump on gun control
Kimmel took aim at Trump for not taking action on gun violence after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead in 2018.
“Children are being murdered,” Kimmel said in a tearful monologue. “Do something. We still haven’t even talked about it; you still haven’t done anything about it.”
Kimmel flipped the argument from Trump and other Republicans that gun violence is a mental health problem, saying he agreed with them — because “if you don’t think we have to do something about it, you’re obviously mentally ill.”
Trump officials complain to Disney
Kimmel continued to criticize the former president throughout his time in the White House and after he left office in 2021, aiming at what he has said on the campaign trail and for his numerous legal battles.
It appears Kimmel’s repeated jabs got to the former president while in the White House. Rolling Stone reported last year that Trump directed his staff to complain to ABC parent company Disney about the comedian’s jokes about him on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” while he was president in 2018.
Two former Trump officials confirmed to the magazine that two separate phone calls were made to Disney to convey Trump's anger over Kimmel's jokes.