Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has issued a defiant response after former US President Donald Trump once again demanded he be fired from his role at ABC.
The Latest Broadside
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to launch another verbal assault on the comedian. The former president claimed Kimmel has "NO TALENT" and "VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS", explicitly calling for ABC to terminate his employment.
Later that evening, during his broadcast, Kimmel addressed the attack head-on. He pointed out that this was not the first time Trump had attempted to have him removed from the airwaves. "You've done this before. You tried to get me fired in September. It didn't work," Kimmel stated directly to the camera, adding with a hint of sarcasm, "Mr President, I admire your tenacity."
A History of Tension
The animosity between the two figures is not new. Kimmel recounted to his audience how he discovered the latest outburst. "I woke up this morning, I'm in bed, my wife comes out of the bathroom – she's got her phone. She goes, 'Um, Trump tweeted you should be fired again.' I was like, 'Oh,' and then I went downstairs and made bagels for the kids," he said, downplaying the threat.
He expressed his frustration at the frequency of these attacks, labelling Trump a "snowflake". "I have honestly lost now of how many times the president has demanded I be pulled off the air," Kimmel remarked. "Every five weeks, he flips out and wants me fired. If you got this many threats from a neighbour, you'd have no problem getting a restraining order."
In a surprising proposition, Kimmel suggested a mutual departure: "Let's ride off into the sunset together," he said, offering to leave his post if Trump was willing to resign from the political arena.
The Wider Implications and the FCC
The conflict extends beyond mere words and has tangible regulatory consequences. Kimmel highlighted a significant development from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The agency announced this week that it would be soliciting public comments for a review into whether national broadcasters, like ABC, hold excessive power over their local affiliate stations.
This review, with public comments due by 10 December, is seen by many as a direct result of the September incident. At that time, under pressure from major network partners Nexstar and Sinclair, as well as Trump's appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr, Kimmel's show was briefly suspended. Carr has consistently argued that local stations lack sufficient power to pre-empt national programmes they deem unsuitable for their audiences.
Kimmel connected the dots for his viewers, stating the review was "no doubt because of what happened the last time they tried to strangle me". The suspension in September was short-lived, as intense viewer pressure led Nexstar and Sinclair to reinstate his show after just a few days.
In a final, biting retort, Kimmel borrowed Trump's own language. Referencing a sexist remark the former president recently made about a Bloomberg News reporter, Kimmel told him, "Quiet, piggy."
It is worth noting that Trump has also recently lobbied for NBC to fire another late-night host, Seth Meyers. Meyers responded with a more subdued approach, comparing the situation to handling an angry driver on the highway, though he did concede, "on a lot of nights, he's got a point!"
