"That son of a b*tch": Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel calls out President Donald Trump in a sharp remark during TV interview

Jimmy Kimmel appeared for his first interview since ABC revoked his suspension by visiting Stephen Colbert’s late-night show on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. Kimmel’s own show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was temporarily taken off the air by the network for outrage by MAGA and the far-right over his comments on the investigation into the death of Charlie Kirk last month.  

Kimmel’s remark, which drew fire from the right, was:

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
 

In the face of criticism and thinly veiled threats made by FCC Chair Brendan Carr, ABC cancelled Kimmel’s show on September 17, 2025. The news was welcomed by President Donald Trump and his supporters, while many across the country were outraged by the attack on free speech. 

On Tuesday night, after Stephen Colbert asked whether his younger self could have imagined “the President of the United States celebrating your unemployment?”, Kimmel delivered a pointed comeback:

“I mean, that son of a bitch. No, I never imagined that we’d ever have a President like this, and I hope we don’t ever have another President like this again. I never even imagined there would ever be a situation in which the President of our country was celebrating hundreds of Americans losing their jobs. But somebody who took pleasure in that, that to me is the absolute opposite of what a leader of this country is supposed to be.”

Jimmy Kimmel opens up about the experience of his show getting cancelled

Jimmy Kimmel on Donald Trump: “That son of a bitch. It’s really unbelievable. I never imagined that we’d ever have a president like this and I hope we don’t have another president like this again” pic.twitter.com/FXgTTZqDh9

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) October 1, 2025

During Tuesday night’s episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert asked Jimmy Kimmel to describe how he first learned Jimmy Kimmel Live! was “indefinitely” suspended. Kimmel called the experience an “emotional roller coaster” and “very strange.” 

“It was about 3:00. We tape our show at 4:30. I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call, it’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual,” he clarified. “As far as I knew, they didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this, so I have like five people who work in my office with me, so the only private place to go is the bathroom.”

“So I go into the bathroom. And I’m on the phone with the ABC executives and they say, ‘Listen, we wanna take the temperature down. We’re concerned about what you’re gonna say tonight and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air tonight,” he went on, to the jeers of Colbert's audience, which were aimed at ABC executives.

Kimmel recalled telling the ABC executives that pulling the show off the air was not a good idea. It ultimately went to a vote that the host lost, and he had to come out and inform the executive producers of the network’s decision. At the moment, he admittedly felt that it was the end of the road and that the show would never be on television again. Nevertheless, that did not ultimately turn out to be the case. The show resumed broadcasting on September 23, 2025. 

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