Jimmy Kimmel Says He Doesn't 'Hate' Donald Trump but Does 'Feel Sorry for Him'
Jimmy Kimmel Says He Doesn't 'Hate' Donald Trump but Does 'Feel Sorry for Him'
Brooke MigdonMon, June 1, 2026 at 7:33 PM UTC
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Credit: Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty; Samir Hussein - Pool/Getty -
Jimmy Kimmel said he doesn't "hate" President Donald Trump, but he does "feel sorry for him"
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host remarked on his career and his recent clashes with the White House in an interview with Vulture on Monday, June 1
Trump has repeatedly called for ABC and its parent company, Disney, to take Kimmel off the air, calling the comedian a "lowlife" and disparaging his show's ratings
Jimmy Kimmel and President Donald Trump have been publicly feuding for nearly a decade. And while the president has criticized Kimmel and called for his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, to be taken off the air, Kimmel maintains he harbors no real animosity toward the man who has called him a “lowlife” and “seriously unfunny.”
“I feel sorry for him,” Kimmel, 58, told Vulture in a recent interview. “He obviously didn’t get hugged a lot.”
The comedian and late-night host spoke about his career and the future of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, currently in its 24th season, in a wide-ranging story published by the outlet on Monday, June 1.
His remarks about the president came as he discussed his longstanding friendship and professional relationship with comedian Adam Carolla, a frequent supporter of Trump and the policies of his second administration.
“I love Adam, and he loves me, and I’ve just decided that if I could change his mind, I would try to do that, but I don’t think I can,” Kimmel told the outlet. “I don’t think fighting with them helps.”
Trump, he added, is “different.”
“I don’t love him,” Kimmel said, but “I don’t hate him, either.”
The comedian’s latest feud with the president, with whom he has clashed several times over the years, began in April, after Kimmel joked on his show that first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow,” two days before a gunman rushed security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington.
Jimmy Kimmel on the set of his late-night show
Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty
The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was later charged in federal court with attempting to assassinate the president.
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Kimmel’s bit, which he has defended as an “obvious” joke about the couple’s 24-year age gap, drew furious responses from the White House, including a rare rebuke from the first lady herself. On social media, Trump demanded that ABC and its parent company, The Walt Disney Company, “immediately” fire Kimmel for what the president claimed was a “call to violence.”
Trump, 79, had previously threatened to “test” ABC last year, after it resumed airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! following a brief suspension over Kimmel’s remarks on the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
President Donald Trump talks to the New York Yankees before a game on Sept. 11, 2025
Credit: New York Yankees/Getty
The network has faced increasing pressure from the administration to fire Kimmel, whose contract expires next year. In April, without mentioning Kimmel, the Federal Communications Commission ordered an early review of ABC’s station licenses for possible violations.
While his most headline-grabbing feud of late may be with Kimmel, Trump has often clashed with other late-night personalities.
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He recently warned that the series finale of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show marked the “Beginning of the End” for late-night television hosts, the majority of whom have ridiculed the president on their shows.
“May they all Rest in Peace!” Trump wrote on Truth Social the morning after Colbert’s final broadcast on May 21. CBS, which launched The Late Show in 1993, announced it would end the long-running program last summer, just days after Colbert mocked the company’s $16 million settlement with Trump over an episode of 60 Minutes as a “big, fat bribe.”
CBS, owned by Paramount Skydance and controlled by billionaire tech scion David Ellison, has maintained that the show’s cancellation was “purely a financial decision.”
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
