President Donald Trump anted up his ongoing feud with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel with a callback to one of their most prolific public spats.
Trump jabbed at Kimmel on Saturday while welcoming the Kennedy Center Honors recipients during a formal gathering in the Oval Office ahead of the annual celebration.
“I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know? They’ll say, ‘He was horrible, he was terrible. It was a horrible situation’,” Trump said to reporters while previewing the Sunday gala he was set to host.
He added that he believed the event would go smoothly, noting, “No, I think we’ll do fine. I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible.”
Kimmel has never hosted a Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. He did host the Emmys and the 2024 Academy Awards, where he and Trump clashed publicly after Kimmel read a live message from Trump during the broadcast.
The president referenced his own hosting role for Sunday’s event, saying, “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Created in 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors represent the institution’s highest recognition of lifetime artistic achievement.
This year’s recipients include Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, George Strait, and the rock band Kiss.
The president said the artists are “among the greatest artists and actors, performers, musicians, singers, songwriters ever to walk the face of the Earth.”
While on the read carpet, Stallone pointed out that being honored was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.”
Sylvester Stallone spoke about President Trump and Vice President JD Vance tonight at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC.
. pic.twitter.com/0nqjTfQz0P— Paul Villarreal (AKA Vince Manfeld) (@AureliusStoic1) December 8, 2025
“This is an amazing event,” he remarked. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day. … but I’m incredibly humbled by it.”
While honorees typically meet privately with the president, Trump held the first on camera Oval Office ceremony recognizing the group on Saturday, introducing each recipient before the Sunday night gala.
Earlier this week, Kimmel referenced Trump during his Thursday monologue, joking that the president’s loyal viewership had made him one of the top trending names on Google.
The search engine published its list of most searched topics for 2025 the same day.
Kimmel ranked third among the most searched people globally, following musician d4vd in first place and rapper Kendrick Lamar in second.
“None of this would’ve ever happened without the support of loyal viewers like President Trump, who has done so much this year to raise awareness for our show,” Kimmel said during his monologue.
He continued by pointing out that some of the other top searched names were linked to controversies.
“I’m not sure if it’s an honor, because number one was a singer named David who spells his name with a ‘4’ instead of an ‘a,’ who is a suspect in a murder, which I guess got him bumped up,” he added.
“Number two is Kendrick Lamar, who murdered Drake this year at halftime of the Super Bowl. And then it’s me, even though I haven’t been involved in any murders!”
“Thank you, Mr. President, for making me number three in the world,” he concluded.
Kimmel also commented on Trump’s repeated critiques of him on social media, noting that the president has labeled him “untalented” and called for him to be taken off the air.
Trump previously wrote on Truth Social, “Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air? Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it? Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel replied on his show, telling viewers, “How about this: I’ll go when you go, OK? We’ll be a team. Let’s ride off into the sunset together like Butch Cassidy and the Suntan Kid.”
He also noted the timing of Trump’s posts, saying, “He posted this at 12:49 a.m., eleven minutes after the show ended on the East Coast, which is nice. He watches us live.”
“Hi, Mr. President! How are you? Thanks for watching us on TV instead of on YouTube — it’s viewers like you who keep us on the air, ironically,” he taunted.
Their feud heated up during the Academy Awards last year, when Kimmel chose to read Trump’s live critique of the ceremony on air.
After quoting Trump’s message, Kimmel replied from the stage, “Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching, I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?”
Following the Oscars, Trump called Kimmel a “lousy host” and “not a talented guy” in a Fox News interview, criticizing his ratings and overall performance.
In response to Trump’s continued criticism, Kimmel joked that the president’s frequent remarks about him had become routine.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “Donald Trump has said I’m not talented so many times Eric is starting to get jealous.”
Reflecting on the Oscars moment, Kimmel added, “But what he doesn’t realize is that I love this. I love that this bothered him so much, I love that Fox picked a news guy nobody knows to interview him, and I especially love when he tries to spin the fact that everyone was laughing at him into a positive.”
He said Trump forgot why the moment went viral, pointing to his own line: “Isn’t it past your jail time?” which has since appeared on clothing, mugs and other items online.
“But if only I’d kept my mouth shut,” Kimmel later joked. “Imagine him telling anyone they should’ve kept their mouth shut. That should be on his tombstone: ‘Should’ve kept his mouth shut.’”
Trump responded again on Truth Social, writing, “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.”
He continued by describing Kimmel as “a FOOL” and added that the comedian would “go down in Television History as the WORST HOST EVER OF THE ONCE VAUNTED ACADEMY AWARDS!”
Kimmel said after the Oscars that while some people advised him not to read Trump’s message on stage, he went ahead anyway.
Trump told Fox News that Kimmel is “dumber than I thought” because reading the message caused it to spread widely online, adding, “all he had to do was keep his mouth shut.”