Jimmy Kimmel mocks Trump for ‘cryptic’ snub

Jimmy Kimmel late Tuesday joked about Donald Trump’s absence on his show by lampooning the GOP presidential front-runner’s 11th-hour cancellation.

“His people called late last night and cancelled on us,” Kimmel told audience members during a taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

{mosads}“They were cryptic as to why he cancelled,” he said. “They said he had a ‘major political commitment.’

“He did want me to relay to all of you that if he had been here, he would have been great,” the ABC late-night talk show host added.

“I’m dying to find out what this ‘major political commitment’ was. Usually, it means he has to go on CNN and call someone an idiot or something.”

Kimmel then pondered Trump’s rationale for bailing on the appearance.

“Why did he cancel?” he asked. “We told him there were cameras here, right? Are Tuesday nights the nights he volunteers down at the orphanage?”

Kimmel’s remarks drew boos from audience members who were anticipating Trump’s appearance in a sketch.

“Now he’s glad he didn’t come, I guess,” he said of Trump. “But don’t worry — tonight, we’re going to give everyone in the audience a basketball dipped in cologne, so you can fully experience what it would have been like had Donald Trump been here.”

Kimmel also joked that he would have had to “build a wall” around his Hispanic sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, had the business mogul actually appeared.

Trump surprised Kimmel and ABC by changing his mind at the last minute. His campaign has since promised the Republican White House hopeful will appear at a later, rescheduled date.

“Due to a political obligation, Mr. Trump is rescheduling his appearance and looks forward to being on the show in the next few weeks,” a Trump campaign spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Trump appeared earlier this year on shows hosted by Kimmel’s competitors, CBS’s Stephen Colbert and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.

He is also scheduled to host NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” for Nov. 7, his first return to that spot since April 2004.