Donald Trump is once again going after a late-night host.
The 47th president criticized David Letterman on Friday after the former Late Show host spoke out about Jimmy Kimmel’s indefinite suspension from ABC.
“Whatever happened to the very highly overrated David Letterman, whose ratings were never very good, either?” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He looks like hell, but at least he knew when to quit. LOSER!!!”
Letterman, who retired from The Late Show in 2015 and was replaced by Stephen Colbert, commented on the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel Live. The ABC show was suspended Wednesday following public pressure from FCC chair Brendan Carr and several network affiliate groups who opposed Kimmel’s comments about the motives of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson.
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“This is misery,” Letterman said while speaking at the Atlantic Festival. He called out “my good friend Jimmy Kimmel,” adding, “I feel bad about this because we’ll see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media, and it’s no good.”
He also criticized the decision further: “It’s ridiculous, and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian and criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
Trump, however, celebrated Kimmel’s suspension. In another Truth Social post Wednesday night, he also called for NBC to suspend The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon and Late Night’s Seth Meyers.
“Great News for America: The ratings-challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote. “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. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it, NBC!!!”
At a press conference the following day, Trump repeated his claim that ABC’s decision was about ratings, despite network affiliates openly saying they pulled the show for political reasons.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else,” Trump told reporters while visiting the U.K. “And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He has very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago.”
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Kimmel’s controversial remarks aired Monday night, when he said: “We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
Carr later urged affiliates to “push back” against Disney, ABC’s parent company, by refusing to air the “garbage” program until leadership “straightens this out.” Soon after, Nexstar and Sinclair—two of the country’s largest affiliate groups—said they would pull the show. Both companies, along with Disney, currently have pending business interests and lobbying efforts that will need approval from the Trump administration.
ABC’s decision drew backlash from many public figures, including Barack Obama, Gavin Newsom, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany, Late Show host Stephen Colbert, and former late-night hosts Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.
