Trump Takes Trial Break to Rant About Kimmel’s Month-Old Oscars Performance
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After a long two days of court naps and having to sit through mean memes, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to throw a tantrum. The former president once again took aim at late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who on Tuesday, roasted Trump over his clumsy attempt to pass off his alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels as a “legal expense” and his struggling Twitter copycat.
Trump revisited Kimmel’s months-old joke about him at the Oscars (a highlight of the ceremony), whilst also confusing the comedian for Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino.
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“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 huffed and puffed on his social media platform.
The four-time indicted former president continued: “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. Supposedly his wife, and even management, begged him not to do it, ‘DON’T READ HIS TRUTH, JIMMY, PLEASE DON’T DO THIS,’ they said. He was made to look like a FOOL, which he is, and at the same time go down in Television History as the WORST HOST EVER OF THE ONCE VAUNTED ACADEMY AWARDS!”
Unfortunately for Trump, it was actually Pacino who was tapped to announce the Best Picture and skipped the usual listing of nominees to unceremoniously declare Oppenheimer the winner. (The Godfather actor later claimed it was not his “intention to omit them, rather a choice by the producers not to have them said again.”)
Trump, who has a history of mixing up people’s identities, seemingly can’t let this moment go, and has previously grumbled over Kimmel’s Oscar jab long after the fact. As for the comedian, despite Trump’s claims that Kimmel’s career is souring, it’s anything but. Kimmel wrapped the first month of 2024 on a seven-week viewership high while dominating as the most-watched late-night show in the key demographic, while this year’s Kimmel-hosted Oscars garnered 19.5 million viewers — the most for any awards ceremony since 2020.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, Kimmel was delighted by the mix-up. “It appears I once again ruffled feathers of our Kentucky fried former president, who is apparently, with all that’s going on, still smarting from my joke about him at the Oscars,” Kimmel said.
After reading Trump’s statement, Kimmel said he was impressed by the use of the word vaunted, but not the rest. “Not only is everything else wrong, but maybe we should be worried about him wrong,” Kimmel said. “Like maybe we should take the keys away from grandpa wrong.”
Kimmel then went through the statement line by line, breaking down each claim. “Don’t get me wrong, I wish I was Al Pacino,” he noted. “I’m just not. He’s Al Pacino. I’m me. You’d think he would know that because I’m pretty sure ‘Say hello to my little friend’ is what he said to Stormy Daniels that got him in all this trouble.”
He also echoed Will Smith’s famous Oscars moment, adding, “By the way, keep my wife’s name out of your f-ing mouth.”
The late-night host noted that the controversy was encouraging him to return to the Oscars stage. “That must be why they asked me to host the show again next year,” Kimmel said. “Which I wasn’t planning to do but now I might. Maybe, you know what, maybe you can watch on the TV in the rec room at Rikers with all the guys.”
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had Kimmel’s back, also referencing Smith when he said, “You keep my friend Jimmy Kimmel’s name out of your weird little wet mouth. Jimmy Kimmel is my podcast brother from Strike Force Five and I have vowed to defend him until my death!”
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