Trump Spoke out About Jimmy Kimmel's Return to ABC in a Truth Social Post

About a week after ABC announced plans to put Jimmy Kimmel Live! on hold indefinitely amid Jimmy Kimmel's comments about Donald Trump and the late political activist and public speaker Charlie Kirk, Jimmy returned to his late-night slot. Because Trump had been so vocal about his thoughts regarding his apparent disdain for the late-night talk show host and comedian, he took to Truth Social to share his reaction to Jimmy Kimmel's return.

ABC originally decided to pull Jimmy's long-running show from the air because of his comments about Charlie's death. Jimmy said on his show that Trump and those who support him and the Republican Party were "desperately trying to characterize" the man accused of murdering Charlie as "anything other than one of them." He also criticized the way Trump publicly mourned Charlie. Despite ABC taking Jimmy off the air, he was back on roughly a week later.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was told the show was canceled, rather than taken off the air temporarily. He also said that he believes Jimmy's ratings and audience numbers are down so low that it makes no sense for ABC to bring the show back. Despite that, however, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned.

"Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who's not funny, and who puts the network in jeopardy by playing 99 percent positive Democrat GARBAGE," Trump wrote. "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. 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."

In Trump's Truth Social post, he condemned ABC as "fake news" and mentioned that the last time he "went for" the network, he was paid out with a $16 million settlement. This is in reference to the 2024 defamation suit regarding anchor George Stephanopoulos's comments about Trump. At the time, per the Associated Press, the network agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees and give $15 million to Trump's presidential library.

During Kimmel's monologue on the night he returned, he addressed what he said before and explained that it wasn't his "intention to make light of the murder of a young man" in reference to Charlie. He also said that his show was taken off the air briefly, and his staff lost their jobs because Trump "can't take a joke" aimed at him.

Although Trump wrote in his Truth Social post that he could go after ABC with another lawsuit, he has not publicly issued a lawsuit against the network at this time. When he sued ABC for comments made about him by George Stephanopoulos, it was because of inaccurate claims about Trump.

Jimmy admitted in his return episode that he was wrong to insinuate that the Republican Party, which backs Trump, was also the political party of the accused shooter in Charlie's murder.