Jimmy Kimmel addressed Donald Trump directly during his Thursday monologue, after the president called on ABC to fire the late-night host (again) in a Truth Social rant.
“My wife comes out of the bathroom. She’s got her phone. She goes, ‘Trump tweeted, you should be fired again,” Kimmel recounted. “I was like, ‘Oh.’ Then I went downstairs and made bagels for the kids.” The host read the president’s social media post for the audience, then asked, “I’m the bum?” He continued, “He posted this at 12:49 a.m. — 11 minutes after the show ended on the East Coast. Which is nice. He watches us live. Hi, Mr. President! Thanks for watching us on TV instead of on YouTube. We appreciate that. It’s viewers like you who keep us on the air, ironically.”
“I have honestly lost count of how many times the president has demanded I be pulled off the air,” he continued. “Talk about a snowflake, this guy. Every five weeks, he flips out and wants me fired.”
“You’ve done this before. You tried to get me fired in September, it didn’t work, Mr. President,” Kimmel said, before making Trump a proposal. “How about this: I’ll go when you go, okay? We’ll be a team. Let’s ride off into the sunset together like Butch Cassidy and the Suntan Kid.”
He ended his message to the president by saying, “Until then, if I may borrow a phrase from you: quiet, piggy.”
Trump’s renewed his call to pull Kimmel off the air arrived after the host detailed the president’s ongoing meltdown over the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump signed legislation on Wednesday ordering the Justice Department to release documents on the late convicted sex offender, despite his attempts to kill the bill. The president has appeared to be growing increasingly rattled when the topic has been brought up, telling a reporter on Air Force One last week, “Quiet, piggy,” when she asked him about his ties to Epstein.
“The Justice Department has 30 days to release the files, which will make for a very Merry Christmas indeed,” quipped Kimmel on Thursday night. “I have a prediction for the next 30 days: I think we’re going to see Trump do some of the craziest sh*t yet.”
