Trump Predicted Kimmel Would Be Canceled Just Weeks Ago: ‘Gonna Be Going’
ABC indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, just five weeks after President Donald Trump predicted the host would “be going.”
On Monday’s show, Jimmy Kimmel accused conservatives of trying to “score political points” by seizing on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week in Utah. Prosecutors charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with murder, stating in the charging documents that Robinson was left of center and had accused Kirk of spreading hate.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said, claiming the alleged killer was a right-winger.
ABC’s decision was announced almost immediately after Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC stations across the country, said it would no longer air Kimmel’s program on its affiliates. Nexstar is currently seeking approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission for a $6.2 billion merger with rival TEGNA.
On Aug. 6, Trump took questions from reporters in the Oval Office, where Brian Glenn of the MAGA network Real America’s Voice asked about reports that Howard Stern might be “parting ways” with Sirius XM.
“Do you think the ‘hate Trump’ business model that’s been in the entertainment business is going out of business because it’s not popular with the American people?” Glenn asked.
Trump responded by claiming that Kimmel and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon would be the “next” to go:
Well, it hasn’t worked. And it hasn’t worked, really, for a long time, and I would say pretty much from the beginning. Colbert has no talent. I mean, I could take anybody here. I could go outside in the beautiful streets and pick a couple of people that do just as well or better. They’d get higher ratings than he did. He’s got no talent.
Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They’re next. They’re gonna be going. I hear they’re gonna be going. I don’t know, but I would imagine because they’d get– you know, Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon.
In July, CBS canceled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert just weeks after Paramount, the network’s parent company, paid President Donald Trump $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. Less than two weeks after Colbert’s cancellation, the FCC approved Paramount’s bid to merge with Skydance, a media company owned by David Ellison, who is also trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, among other properties. Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is currently seeking to acquire a controlling stake in TikTok, which would also require approval from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump himself is trying to broker the deal.
Watch above via NBC News Now.
