Former President Trump took another swipe Sunday at late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, whose response to the former president’s criticism during the Oscars went viral on social media.
When asked on Fox News’s “MediaBuzz” about his long-running feud with Kimmel, Trump said, “Now look, look, Jimmy Kimmel is every is … every night he hits me I guess. His ratings are terrible.”
“I hear he hits me all the time, so I figured I’d hit him, because I thought he was a lousy host,” he continued.
Trump and Kimmel’s long-running back-and-forth was brought to the surface last week when Kimmel responded on live television to the former president’s criticism of his hosting skills during the 96th annual Academy Awards.
The ABC late-night TV host said he wanted to share a “review” with the audience and later revealed it was posted by Trump on Truth Social less than an hour before Kimmel read it on live television.
“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” he said, reading Trump’s post to the audience. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
Kimmel hit back and said he was “surprised” to see Trump still up, quipping “isn’t it past your jail time?” in a nod to the former president’s various legal battles.
Trump said Sunday he did not expect Kimmel to read his post at the awards, especially so close before the Academy Award for Best Picture was to be announced. The former president pointed out Kimmel was told by some backstage not to read the post aloud, which Kimmel also confirmed after the awards show.
“Now the big story is that they all begged him not to do it. … ’Don’t do it.’ He probably stupidly, you know, he had to act in a short period of time, like minutes, right? He had minutes. because he’s on air. He sees this thing and he wants to go out there and he wants to, I guess confront me and so … he ends up reading my [post],” Trump quipped. “I said, ‘This guy’s even dumber than I thought.’ The thing went viral, it’s been all over the world now, and all he had to do is keep his mouth shut.”
Trump and Kimmel have publicity criticized each other for years, with the TV host making frequent jokes about the former president, who calls him out on social media.
The Hill reached out to ABC for comment.