President Donald Trump reacted to the news that Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show will resume after a brief hiatus on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
Trump posted on Truth Social, saying he “can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back.” He added, “The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there.”
He continued, “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE? He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.”
Trump also wrote, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
On Sept. 17, an ABC spokesperson told PEOPLE that the Disney-owned network would pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air “indefinitely,” sparking days of uncertainty about the show’s future.
The suspension came after conservative criticism of Kimmel’s remarks about the death of political organizer Charlie Kirk during a recent monologue.
Trump, a long-time critic of Kimmel, celebrated the initial suspension both on social media and in remarks to reporters. On Sept. 17, he wrote on Truth Social, “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.”
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible,” he added, taking shots at fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJ,” he continued.
During his state visit to the United Kingdom on Sept. 18, Trump referred to Kimmel’s suspension as a firing, though ABC and Disney had not described it that way.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great man named Charlie Kirk,” Trump, 79, said. “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person, he had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago.”
“You can call that free speech or not,” he added. “He was fired for lack of talent.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. EST, featuring celebrities, athletes, musicians, comedians, and human interest stories, along with comedy sketches and a house band. Guests for Tuesday, October 6’s Game Night special included Bill Murray and Shaquille O’Neal.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder in connection with the incident.
Kimmel, 57, criticized attempts to politicize the murder, saying, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
He added, “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” before showing clips of Trump being asked about Kirk but deflecting the conversation to a new White House Ballroom project.
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said of Trump. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”
Hours before ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension, the network received warnings from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, regarding the host’s remarks.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Following this, Nexstar, the largest U.S. television station owner, announced it would refuse to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its stations, followed by Sinclair, which owns the largest group of ABC affiliates.
After the hiatus, Sinclair presented Kimmel with a list of demands to return the show to their stations, including a direct apology to Kirk’s family and a donation to his conservative organization, Turning Point USA, now run by his wife, Erika.
