Trump fires back after Kimmel jokes about hush money trial, social media company

by Sarah Fortinsky - 04/17/24 12:21 PM ET

Former President Trump fired back Wednesday after Jimmy Kimmel ripped him in jokes about his New York hush money criminal trial and his social media company’s plummeting stock.

In a morning post on Truth Social, Trump railed against the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host, calling him “stupid,” a “fool” and criticizing his performance as Oscars host. Trump famously criticized Kimmel during the awards ceremony last month, and Kimmel then read Trump’s post aloud on live television, as a real-time review of his performance.

“Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his horrendous performance and big ratings drop as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night,” Trump wrote Wednesday, later adding, “Supposedly his wife, and even management, begged him not to do it, ‘DON’T READ HIS TRUTH, JIMMY, PLEASE DON’T DO THIS,’ they said.”

“He was made to look like a FOOL, which he is, and at the same time go down in Television History as the WORST HOST EVER OF THE ONCE VAUNTED ACADEMY AWARDS!” Trump continued.

Trump did not explicitly mention Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue, but his post followed a scathing series of jokes targeting the presumptive presidential GOP nominee.

Kimmel opened his monologue following the second day of jury selection in Trump’s first criminal trial, calling it “another Stormy day in New York in the new episode of ‘The Orange People’s Court’ today, starring Donald J. Trump as the defendant in his first of many criminal trials to come. We have a lot to look forward to.”

Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the Oscars on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

Kimmel mocked Trump for his social media post earlier that day targeting the judge in the case and said, “Only Donald Trump would complain about being under a gag order while violating that very gag order.”

On reports Trump fell asleep in the courtroom, Kimmel said, “He’s very sleepy. Is it possible his lawyers are tranquilizing him, to keep the outbursts at a minimum?”

Trump currently faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with the former president ahead of the 2016 election.

Kimmel joked that Trump allegedly made the payment “so his supporters wouldn’t find out he’s a lying, cheating scumbag, but the joke is on Trump because turns out his supporters don’t care that he’s a lying, cheating scumbag.”

“He could have saved himself a whole trial and 130 grand,” he added.

Kimmel also took several hits at Trump’s media company’s falling stock prices. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, has suffered steep losses in the stock market after a strong debut last month, with shares rising above $79 on its first day of trading and settling around $62 by the end of the week. Truth Social’s share price had fallen more than 13 percent to roughly $23 shortly before the Tuesday closing bell.

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The former president owns close to 58 percent of Trump Media shares.

“But then the worst news for the Trump kids is Daddy is running out of money. Shares for his media company have plummeted. They’re down 70 percent since they went public a couple of weeks ago, they’re down another 14 percent today,” Kimmel said Tuesday.

“If you bought Trump’s stock two weeks ago — and shame on you, if you did, you lost half your money, but if you hold on just a little bit longer, you might be able to lose all of it,” Kimmel said at another point during the monologue.

Tags Donald Trump hush money trial Jimmy Kimmel