Donald Trump took another pugilistic swipe at Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday, saying “he’s even dumber than I thought” after the late night TV host shared a critical appraisal from the former president at the Oscars ceremony.
Asked on Fox News’s MediaBuzz about his long-time feud with the ABC regular, Trump delighted in saying, “Now look, look, Jimmy Kimmel is every is … every night, he hits me I guess, his ratings are terrible.”
“I hear he hits me all the time, so I figured I’d hit him because I thought he was a lousy host,” he continued.
The latest sparring match between the pair started last week as Kimmel responded on live television to the former president’s criticism of his hosting skills during the 96th annual Academy Awards.
Kimmel claimed he sought to share a “review” with the audience and later revealed Trump wrote the appraisal on Truth Social less than an hour before Kimmel read it on live television.
“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” he said, relaying Trump’s post to the audience. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
Kimmel hit back and said he was “surprised” to see Trump still up, quipping at the end “Isn’t it past your jail time” in yet another attack on the former president that continues a theme that is now years-old.
Trump on Sunday said he did not expect Kimmel to read his post at the awards much less choose to do it so close before the Academy Award for Best Picture was to be announced.
The former president pointed out Kimmel was told by some backstage not to read the post aloud, which Kimmel also confirmed after the awards show, as Breitbart News reported.
“Now the big story is that they all begged him not to do it…’don’t do it.’ He probably stupidly, you know he had to act in a short period of time, like minutes, right? He had minutes because he’s on air. He sees this thing and he wants to go out there and he wants to, I guess confront me and so…he ends up reading my Truth,” Trump quipped.
“I said, ‘this guy’s even dumber than I thought.’ The thing went viral, it’s been all over the world now and all he had to do is keep his mouth shut.”
