Jimmy Kimmel was back hosting his late-night show on Monday and immediately criticized Donald Trump.
The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! started the show in 2026 by jokingly criticizing the President about how few people watched his Kennedy Center Honors special.
Kimmel mentioned that Trump hosted an awards show recently. Trump had previously bragged about his hosting abilities, claiming he was better than Kimmel and would get high ratings, but the Kennedy Center Honors telecast he hosted actually had the lowest viewership ever.
The December 7th event drew an average of 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen Live. This was a 25% decrease from the 4.1 million viewers who tuned in last year, which was already the lowest number on record.
Kimmel joked that he wouldn’t want to be the White House intern tasked with removing that headline from every newspaper, even if it meant literally eating them.
He previously stated he would resign if he couldn’t outperform Jimmy Kimmel. He essentially said that if he lost to Kimmel, he didn’t believe he should remain president. So, it seems he’s honoring that commitment and returning to Mar-a-Lago.
Last month, Trump had confidently brushed off concerns about the broadcast.
He told reporters that no president had ever hosted the awards before, making this a first-time event. He joked that while he expected positive reviews, the media would likely criticize him, calling it a terrible situation. Despite this expectation, he expressed confidence that everything would go well.
He continued, saying he’d seen some of the show hosts and thought Jimmy Kimmel was particularly bad. He stated that if he couldn’t outperform someone like Kimmel in terms of talent, he didn’t believe he should be president.
As a longtime fan of the Kennedy Center Honors, I was really excited to see President Trump become the first sitting president to actually host the event! It’s such a special night recognizing people who’ve truly made a difference in the world, and it felt great to see him take part.
The 2025 list of honorees featured George Strait, Sylvester Stallone, the band KISS, Michael Crawford, and Gloria Gaynor.
During his second term, Donald Trump became very focused on the Kennedy Center. He even changed its name in December to ‘The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts’.
The move sparked backlash and led several scheduled performers to pull out in protest.
Just a few days before, Jimmy Kimmel had also criticized Trump, while highlighting the value of free speech, when he accepted the award for Best Talk Show at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.
As a lifestyle commentator, I’ve been following the story of this late-night host closely. Last year, his show was temporarily taken off the air after some comments he made about the person accused of attacking a conservative activist, Charlie Kirk. It was a really divisive moment, and interestingly enough, Donald Trump – who the host often jokes about – publicly celebrated the show’s brief suspension. It really highlighted the current climate of opinion and how quickly things can escalate in the public eye.
Even though the suspension didn’t last long – it was lifted in under a week – it brought renewed attention to concerns about free speech in the United States, a topic Jimmy Kimmel spoke about openly during his show on Sunday.
Jimmy Kimmel thanked the writers, actors, producers, and union members, many of whom were present, for their support. He emphasized that they reminded everyone that free speech shouldn’t be taken for granted in their city or nation.
‘Your actions are important, and we appreciate them.’
He then turned his attention squarely back to the Commander-in-Chief.
Kimmel jokingly thanked President Donald Trump, saying they wouldn’t have had a successful evening without him.
‘So thank you, Mr President, for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day.’
Jimmy Kimmel has frequently satirized Donald Trump and his administration, a practice that eventually led to ABC’s parent company briefly suspending his show.
Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, Kimmel was suspended after a passionate on-air commentary. He criticized those associated with the ‘MAGA’ movement, claiming they were attempting to distance themselves from the shooter while simultaneously trying to benefit politically from the tragedy.
He also compared Trump’s response to that of ‘a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.’
I was absolutely heartbroken to hear about Kirk, who was only 31 years old. He was tragically killed on September 10th while giving a speech at Utah Valley University. It was devastating to then learn that Tyler Robinson, 22, had been charged with the shooting. It’s just a terrible situation.
After the controversy, ABC, which is owned by Disney, took Jimmy Kimmel off the air. The head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, also cautioned the network that they could lose their broadcasting license – a suggestion that Donald Trump repeated, implying that any network critical of him should have its license revoked.
The episode caused a strong public reaction, including protests, as many people felt the White House was violating rights to free speech and a free press.
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2026-01-07 00:04