Trump officials complained to Disney about Jimmy Kimmel jokes on ABC: report

Former President Trump directed his staff to complain to ABC parent company Disney about late night host Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about him, according to a Rolling Stone report published Sunday.

According to two former Trump officials, the then-president was upset over the mocking he got on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2018, Rolling Stone reported. Trump directed his staff to call one of the top executives at Disney to ask them to get Kimmel to tone down the anti-Trump humor.

One of the former officials told the magazine that Trump felt that Kimmel was being “very dishonest and doing things that [Trump] would have once sued over.” The two officials confirmed that two separate phone calls were made to Disney to convey how angry Trump was.

“Nobody thought it was going to change anything but [Trump] was focused on it so we had to do something,” a third Trump administration official told Rolling Stone.

Kimmel responded to the Rolling Stone report on Sunday, tweeting “Another perfect call,” a jab at Trump’s characterization of phone calls he made during his time in office that have led to political and legal ramifications, including one to the Georgia secretary of state that is now at the center of grand jury investigation.

The Hill has reached out to ABC for comment.

This is not the first report of Trump attempted to rein in Kimmel and other late night hosts. During his time in office, Trump asked the Justice Department to look into “Saturday Night Live” and other late night comedy shows, The Daily Beast reported in 2021.

Kimmel responded to The Daily Beast’s report at the time, saying Trump wanted to use the Justice Department as a “goon squad” to stop himself from being mocked.

—Updated at 8:10 p.m.