President Donald Trump threatened to “test ABC” after the broadcaster allowed Jimmy Kimmel to return to air, just under a week after the late-night talk show host was pulled off air indefinitely.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” Trump fumed on Truth Social Tuesday night. “The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!”
Contrary to the president’s claim, Jimmy Kimmel, Live! was never officially cancelled by ABC or Disney executives. The brief suspension came following remarks made by Kimmel about the death of Charlie Kirk during his monologue on Monday of last week.
The network announced Monday the show would be returning at its normal scheduled time Tuesday.
“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump wrote in his post ahead of the program Tuesday evening.
“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this.”
In an extra threat, Trump added: “Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
ABC previously settled with the president in December, paying $15 million towards Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit. The network also paid $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.
The suit centered around anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. While Trump denied all wrongdoing in the case, a jury found that Trump had defamed Carrol and was liable for battery.
As part of the settlement, ABC News posted an editor’s note to its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’ statements during a March 10 segment on his “This Week” program.
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Despite Kimmel’s return to air, the late night talk show will remain unavailable on some local networks after Nexstar Media and Sinclair Inc announced they would continue to boycott the show.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” the company shared on social media.
During September 14’s episode of the talk show, Kimmel accused Republicans of using Kirk’s death to score political points. He also joked that President Trump was grieving the conservative activist’s murder “the way a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
The host was set to address his comments during Wednesday’s episode, which was pulled by ABC just hours before showtime.
