Donald Trump launched yet another assault on the late-night host he loves to hate.
This time the attack came in the dead of night after Kimmel crossed a line Trump won't tolerate.
And one word from Donald Trump left Jimmy Kimmel fighting for his job.
Trump fires off midnight attack after Epstein jokes hit too close to home
President Trump posted a scathing attack on Jimmy Kimmel at 12:49 a.m. Thursday, calling for ABC to yank the late-night host off the air.
"Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?" Trump wrote on Truth Social.¹
"Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it? Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!"¹
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1991496666881618195?s=20
The midnight meltdown came hours after Kimmel opened his Wednesday show with jokes about the pending release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump opposed legislation mandating the Justice Department release the files, but reversed course when it became clear Congress would pass the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support.
He signed the legislation Wednesday, giving Kimmel fresh material.
"We are now one step closer to answering the question: What did the president know, and how old were these women when he knew it?" Kimmel quipped.²
Kimmel also riffed on Republican loyalty to Trump over the Epstein controversy.
"They don't know what is in those files. They are taking his word for it. They are taking the word of someone who paid a porn star $130,000 and claims he didn't do anything with her," Kimmel joked.²
The comedian saved some of his sharpest barbs for Trump's White House dinner honoring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kimmel called it "an alumni dinner for the legion of doom," noting guests included Elon Musk and Stephen Miller.²
"This group is so cartoonishly evil, we might actually need Austin Powers to defeat them," Kimmel added.²
https://twitter.com/AntiTrumpCanada/status/1991504673745039426?s=20
Trump's war on Kimmel shows no signs of ending
This is far from the first time Trump has demanded Kimmel be removed from television.
The feud between the two stretches back years, but reached a boiling point in September when ABC suspended Kimmel's show after he made comments about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Trump's FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC's broadcast license over Kimmel's monologue, which suggested MAGA Republicans were trying to distance themselves from the shooter's ideology.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr warned on a podcast. "These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."³
ABC pulled Kimmel off the air within hours of Carr's threat.
The suspension triggered massive backlash, with viewers canceling Disney+ subscriptions and free speech advocates slamming the move as government censorship.
Kimmel returned to the air days later to record ratings, with 6.3 million viewers tuning in for his comeback — the most-watched regular episode in the show's history.⁴
Trump was livid when Kimmel returned and has continued threatening ABC over the comedian ever since.
On Tuesday, Trump called for ABC to lose its broadcast license entirely after correspondent Mary Bruce asked tough questions about the Epstein files and the Saudi crown prince's role in journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
"I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it's so wrong," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.⁵
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1991479054956986394?s=20
He was apparently referring to Carr, adding "we have a great commissioner, chairman, who should look at that."⁵
Trump also berated Bruce personally, calling her "a terrible reporter" with a bad "attitude."⁵
Days earlier, Trump pointed at a female Bloomberg reporter who asked about Epstein and told her, "Quiet, piggy."⁶
Kimmel mocked that incident during his Wednesday monologue, calling out Trump's pattern of losing control whenever reporters bring up Epstein.
"Trump is not a happy little meal right now," Kimmel said. "Every time he gets asked about Jeffrey Epstein, he loses his mind."⁶
"He said 'Quiet, piggy' to a reporter and it barely made the news," Kimmel added. "If a man spoke like that to a female co-worker in a workplace harassment training video, you'd go, 'Ah, that's over the top. Nobody would do that.'"⁶
Trump's willingness to weaponize government agencies against media critics represents an escalating threat to press freedom.
ABC already settled a Trump defamation lawsuit for $15 million in December, a move widely seen as Disney CEO Bob Iger caving to political pressure.⁷
Trump referenced that settlement in a September post threatening ABC over Kimmel's return, writing, "Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative."⁷
The president's attacks on Kimmel intensified after the 2024 Oscars when the comedian read Trump's real-time criticism of the ceremony live on stage.
"Thank you for watching," Kimmel fired back. "I'm surprised you're still up, isn't it past your jail time?"⁸
Trump has been stewing over that moment for months, repeatedly calling Kimmel "untalented" and claiming his ratings are tanking.
The data tells a different story — Kimmel's return from suspension drew the biggest audience of his career, and his emotional monologue defending free speech has been viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube.⁷
Trump also threatened NBC's late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, posting in July that Kimmel is "NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone."⁹
None of those predictions have come true, but Trump's war on late-night comedy shows no signs of ending.
Trump and his FCC chairman can't actually revoke ABC's broadcast license — the FCC licenses local stations, not networks, and the next license renewal cycle isn't until 2028.¹⁰
But Trump doesn't need to follow through on his threats to cause real damage.
Major station groups Nexstar and Sinclair both initially refused to air Kimmel's show when it returned, likely because both companies have massive business pending before Trump's FCC.¹¹
They reversed course after public pressure, but the message was clear — cross Trump and face consequences.
Trump's midnight attack calling Kimmel a "bum" and demanding he be fired shows the president remains obsessed with punishing critics.
For now, Kimmel isn't backing down, using his platform to mock Trump's Epstein panic and government overreach.
But with Trump calling him a "bum" at 12:49 in the morning and threatening ABC's business interests, the pressure campaign shows no signs of stopping.
¹ Ted Johnson, "Donald Trump Continues Attack On ABC With Call To Drop Jimmy Kimmel After Late-Night Host Makes Jeffrey Epstein Jokes," Deadline, November 20, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Brian Stelter, "Why Trump and his FCC chairman Brendan Carr's threats against TV station licenses are 'aggressive yet hollow,'" CNN Business, September 19, 2025.
⁴ Etan Vlessing, "Trump Calls for Jimmy Kimmel to Be Fired (Again): 'Get the Bum Off the Air!!!'," The Hollywood Reporter, November 20, 2025.
⁵ Lauren Feiner, "Trump calls for ABC's license to be revoked after reporter asks about Jeffrey Epstein files," CNBC, November 18, 2025.
⁶ Nico Hines, "Jimmy Kimmel Rips Into Donald Trump's Shameful 'Quiet, Piggy' Meltdown," The Daily Beast, November 19, 2025.
⁷ Brian Stelter, "Trump's new ABC threat proves Jimmy Kimmel right — and his MAGA allies wrong," CNN Business, September 24, 2025.
⁸ Etan Vlessing, "Donald Trump Roasts Jimmy Kimmel's Oscars Host Gig Amid Hush Money Trial," Variety, April 17, 2024.
⁹ Patrick Reilly, "Donald Trump Loses It at 'Bum' Late-Night Host Jimmy Kimmel," The Daily Beast, November 20, 2025.
¹⁰ Char Adams and Dan Mangan, "Why Trump Can't Revoke NBC and ABC News' Licenses," TIME, August 25, 2025.
¹¹ Stelter, "Why Trump and his FCC chairman Brendan Carr's threats," CNN Business, September 19, 2025.
