Former President Trump fought back Wednesday after Jimmy Kimmel mocked him with comments about his New York hush money criminal trial and his social media company’s dropping value.
In a morning post on Truth Social, Trump slammed the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host, calling him “stupid,” a “fool,” and disparaging his performance as an Oscar host. Trump publicly blasted Kimmel during the awards ceremony last month, and Kimmel responded by reading Trump’s post on live television as a real-time evaluation 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 THI
“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 address Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue, but his statement came after a blistering string of jokes about the probable Republican presidential nominee.
Kimmel began his monologue after the second day of jury selection in Trump’s first criminal trial, saying it was “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’ve got a lot to look forward to.”
Kimmel criticized Trump for his earlier that day social media post criticizing the judge in the case, saying, “Only Donald Trump would complain about being under a gag order while violating that very gag order.”
Kimmel responded to allegations that Trump fell asleep in court, saying, “He’s very sleepy.” Is it conceivable that his lawyers are calming him down to keep his outbursts to a minimum?
Trump is currently facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to remain silent about an alleged affair she had with the former president prior to 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 went on to say.
Kimmel also took many shots at Trump’s media company’s declining market value. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, has experienced significant stock market losses following a good debut last month, with shares jumping above $79 on the first day of trade and settling at $62 by the end of the week. Truth Social’s stock had plunged more than 13% to around $23 just before the Tuesday closing bell.
The former president controls over 58 percent of Trump Media shares.
“But the worst news for the Trump children is that Daddy is running out of money.” Shares in his media company have collapsed. “They’re down 70 percent since going public a few weeks ago, and they’re down another 14 percent today,” Kimmel remarked 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 added at another point during the monologue.