President Donald Trump denounced the ABC’s decision to bring Jimmy Kimmel back to late-night television, saying, “I think we’re going to test ABC on this.”
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job,” Trump wrote on his true social platform. “The White House was told by ABC that his show had been cancelled! His audience was gone and his ‘talent’ wasn’t there, so something happened between that and now. ”
Trump continued. “Why they want someone who is so inadequate, not funny, putting their network at risk by playing 99% positive Democrat trash. He is another arm of the DNC and, as far as I know, it’s a big illegal campaign contribution. A true bundle of losers!
The $16 million Trump referenced is the total amount Disney paid to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopulos. In December 2024, Disney agreed to pay a $15 million settlement to Trump’s Presidential Library after claiming that Trump “can be held responsible for rape” in March 2024 “this week” on ABC News. (In fact, the ju-degree verdict found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit brought on by writer E. Jean Carroll.)
On September 17th, after ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, Disney said on Monday that the show would return to its regular time slot on Tuesday over comments the host made about the murderer of Charlie Kirk. “We spent our last day in thoughtful conversations with Jimmy. After those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” ABC’s parent company Disney said in a statement. Sinclair and Nexter media said they wouldn’t air “Jimmy Kimmy Live!” on Tuesday with two big station groups that previously said they were ahead of Kimmel in Kirk’s comments. for the time being.
Trump’s comments about Kimmel last week made the show cancelled and the president seemed to believe Kimmel was “dismissed.”
“American great news: The rated Jimmy Kimmelshaw is cancelled,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on September 17th.
At a press conference held in the UK last Thursday, Trump said Kimmel was “dismissed for being “a worse rating than anyone else.” He also said, “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had a very bad review. They should have fired him a long time ago, so you can call it that free speech. He was fired for lack of talent.” Trump added that Kimmel “said something horrible about a gentleman called Charlie Kirk.” (Kimmel said nothing on the show about Kirk himself.)
The ABC suspension at Kimmel’s Show last week came after two large station groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, said they were dropping “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel’s remarks on September 15th show that the “Magagang” was trying to portray Charlie Kirk’s murderer as “something other than one of them.” Earlier that same day, FCC Chair Brendan Kerr said on a podcast that “there is additional work beyond the FCC” unless ABC “takes action” on Kimmel, suggesting that it was to investigate “news distortion” complaints against the network. Carr warned, “We can do this in an easy or difficult way.” The FCC chairman said Kimmel’s commentary was “some of the most sickly acts possible.”
A full Disney statement on Monday (September 22) stated, “Last Wednesday, we decided to pause production of the show to avoid further inflaming the tense situation in our country’s emotional moments. Some of the comments were ignored and felt insulting.
