Trump Praises 'Star Wars' To Kimmel, Says 'I've Hit People Pretty Hard'
Donald Trump visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night, glowing with satisfaction at his performance at the Republican debate on Tuesday.
Kimmel wasted no time, asking some amusing questions. Such as: “Do you think Jeb Bush is scared of you, or just scared in general?”
Trump said with mock-worry, “He’s having a rough time… I defined him. I gave Jeb this term ‘low energy.’ We do not need in this country low energy, we need high energy, don’t you agree?” The cheering audience agreed.
Trump admitted, “I’ve been a little bit divisive in that I’ve hit people pretty hard.” “A little bit, yeah,” said Kimmel, chuckling. But, said Trump, “I don’t care if people like it or not, I do the right thing, I say the right thing.”
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The crowd cheered, but as usual, what the “right thing” is, for Trump, was difficult to pin down. Asked about his remark about banning Muslims from entering the country, Trump fili-blustered: “Many of them called me and said, ‘You’re right, we have a problem… They said, ‘Donald, you’ve done us a tremendous service because… we’ve got to get down to the bottom of this” — “this” being terrorist acts. Kimmel asked if he wasn’t helping to recruit terrorists with his anti-Muslim rhetoric. “I don’t buy that,” retorted the candidate. “We need strength… if you look at what happened in the Middle East and Iraq, everything is destabilized. Things would have been better if we’d done nothing.”
Kimmel played to his guest, at one point observing that his on-stage pal Guillermo “came here illegally [and] went through the [immigration] process… I feel like we should let Mexicans in and kick a bunch of Americans out,” Kimmel said, to great applause. The host also asked Trump if he’d go to see the new Star Wars movie. The candidate said he didn’t have much time for that, but that Star Wars is “great stuff; George Lucas, what he’s done is terrific.”
Kimmel concluded the appearance by saying he had ghost-written a children’s book, a Dr. Seuss-ian effort that he hoped Trump would agree to co-author called Winners Aren’t Losers. Sample quatrain: “Winners aren’t losers/They’re winners, like me/A loser’s a loser/Which one will you be?” Trump laughed heartily, but he gave no indication that he’d sign on for this surefire bestseller.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.
