President Donald Trump lashed out at ABC on Tuesday night ahead of the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” suggesting he is once again going to go after the network.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do,” he continued. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
The social media post came within the hour of the Tuesday night return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after Disney decided to end the show’s “indefinite suspension” after six days on Monday.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the Walt Disney Company said in a statement. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Trump had initially celebrated Kimmel’s suspension after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened the House of Mouse, saying Disney could “do this the easy way or the hard way,” in regards to their licenses.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote the day of. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person,” he then said on Thursday in a press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago, so, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Trump got even more pointed on Air Force One later that day. “When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” the president said, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
However, some conservative pundits and commentators were less enthused by the overstep, with people like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz all suggesting the move was too far into authoritarian territory. Also on Monday, 400 celebrities — including Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Pedro Pascal, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — warned of the dangers of encroaching on America’s Freedom of Speech in an ACLU open letter.
Ultimately, local affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair both decided to still preempt Tuesday’s new episode across their stations.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returns to ABC on Tuesday night.
