Jimmy Kimmel is taking aim at Donald Trump’s latest White House add-on: new, partisan plaques placed beneath presidential portraits in the “Presidential Walk of Fame” the president installed earlier this year.
On the Dec. 17 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 58-year-old host said the plaques — which include insults and accusations directed at some of Trump’s political opponents — are as real as they sound.
“It takes a special kind of lunatic to get his insults cast in bronze,” Kimmel said, before adding, “Can we please put this man in a home before he completely destroys the one he’s in now?”
Kimmel stressed to viewers that the segment wasn’t a joke, telling the audience, “this is not a bit,” and that the plaques are genuinely displayed inside the White House.
According to Kimmel, the text on the plaques repeats familiar Trump talking points, including claims about former President Barack Obama and former President Joe Biden. He noted that Biden’s plaque uses the “Sleepy Joe” nickname and blames him for “a series of unprecedented disasters” as well as “the highest inflation ever recorded.” Kimmel also said Biden’s portrait has been swapped out for an image of an autopen — a device presidents commonly use — which Trump has frequently criticized Biden for using.
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Kimmel added that Obama’s plaque accuses him of harming small businesses, overseeing a “stagnant Economy,” and being “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
He also mocked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, saying she described Trump as a “student of history” and suggested he wrote much of the text himself. “Yeah, no kidding! Who else would write that?” Kimmel quipped.
“It’s like Dickipedia, each entry,” he joked, drawing applause. “I will say, in fairness, they weren’t all unflattering. The plaques he made about himself are very positive.”
Kimmel said the plaques often steer back to Trump’s personal take on the person featured — and claimed Trump “even worked himself into the Reagan plaque.” Kimmel described the final lines as suggesting Ronald Reagan and Trump were admirers of each other “long before President Trump’s historic run for the White House.”
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“Ronald Reagan died in 2004. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, 10 years before that,” Kimmel said. “What was he a fan of, exactly? Trump’s Pizza Hut commercials?”
Kimmel has long been a vocal critic of Trump, frequently using his monologues to take direct shots at the president. Trump, for his part, has repeatedly called for Kimmel’s show to be canceled. Their public back-and-forth intensified after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly pulled from the air in September following the death of one of Trump’s allies, conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk.
