Trump Mocks ‘Terrible’ Jimmy Kimmel Ahead of Kennedy Center Honors Hosting Gig | Video

The feud between President Trump and Jimmy Kimmel continued Sunday night when the former took shots at the latter prior to the president’s stint as host of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

On the red carpet for the event, Trump was asked what he’d done to prepare to host the annual performance arts ceremony.

“Maybe I haven’t prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats,” Trump replied, while standing next to his wife Melania. “You look at the not-so-greats like Jimmy Kimmel, he was just terrible.”

“I think you want to be just loose, and not a lot to prepare for really,” the president concluded. “You know what you have to be? You have to be yourself.”

Arroyo: How have you prepared to host tonight?

Trump: Maybe I haven't prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those of the greats… you look at the not so greats like Jimmy Kimmel, he was just terrible pic.twitter.com/j77WYWppsg— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

While Kimmel has hosted prestigious awards ceremonies like the Oscars and Emmys, he has, notably, never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors. To date, he has only appeared onstage at the event during its 2012 ceremony when he helped pay tribute to one of that year’s honorees, David Letterman. That did not stop Trump from taking more shots at Kimmel.

On Saturday, Trump boldly predicted that the year’s Kennedy Center Honors would turn out to be a great success.

“I believe — and I’m gonna make a prediction — this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done, and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s gonna happen tomorrow night,” Trump said, referencing CBS and Paramount+’s planned Dec. 23 broadcast of the ceremony.

“We never had a president hosting the awards before. This is a first,” Trump added. “I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say, ‘He was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation.’ No, we’ll do fine. I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”

Kimmel and Trump have been open about their dislike for each other for years. Their feud achieved greater visibility this year, though, when Kimmel was briefly suspended and his late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was pulled off the air, following comments by the host about assassinated conservative political activist Charlie Kirk and, specifically, Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s death.

Kimmel was reinstated by ABC shortly after his suspension, but Trump has continued to call for the host to be fired.

This past Thursday, Kimmel jokingly called Trump one of his “loyal viewers” and thanked him for his help in making the late night TV host the third-most trending person of 2025. “None of this would ever have happened without the support of loyal viewers like President Trump, who has done so much this year to raise awareness of our show,” Kimmel said. “Thank you, Mr. President, for making me No. 3 in the world.”

Trump, meanwhile, spent Sunday night hosting the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, which paid tribute to this year’s honorees, Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford and George Strait. Early in his second term, Trump ousted the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership and appointed a number of his own supporters on its board of trustees, who subsequently elected him the organization’s chair.

In addition to hosting this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, the president reportedly played an instrumental role in helping choose the 2025 honorees. Trump has previously said he turned down some suggested candidates because he deemed them “too woke.”

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