Trump remains furious with Jimmy Kimmel: “All he had to do was keep his mouth shut”

Donald Trump once again attacked Jimmy Kimmel for the TV host’s late-night jokes and for insulting the former president during the Oscars telecast earlier this month.

“I guess Jimmy Kimmel hits me every night, his ratings are terrible,” Trump told Fox News host Howard Kurtz on Sunday. “He’s not a talented guy. I heard that he hits me all the time, so I thought about hitting him because I thought he was a terrible host.”

Trump criticized Kimmel in a post he released on his Truth Social website in the middle of the Oscars. Kimmel then read that message live during the ceremony and joked that he was surprised Trump was still watching.

“Haven’t you already spent your time in jail?” Kimmel said.

In his rambling interview with Kurtz, Trump claimed a victory of sorts when Kimmel read his message.

“Probably, stupidly, you know, I had to act in a short period of time, like minutes, right? “He had minutes because he’s in the air, he sees this and he wants to come out and he wants to, I guess, confront me and he ends up reading my Truth,” Trump said. “I said, ‘This guy is even dumber than he thought.’ The thing went viral, it’s been all over the world and all he had to do was keep his mouth shut.”

Oscars producer Molly McNearney, who is also Kimmel’s wife, said after the show that she tried to dissuade Kimmel from reading Trump’s message.

However, after the joke went viral, McNearney admitted she was wrong.

“I feel like my instincts are usually right, but I was totally wrong about that.” she told Variety.

Trump has been obsessed for years with his treatment on late-night television and has publicly attacked Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, “Saturday Night Live” and others for their jokes at his expense.

When he was president he also wanted to punish the networks and programs that mocked or criticized him. Last year, rolling stone reported that Trump had White House officials call Disney, parent company of ABC, which airs Kimmel’s show, to demand they take action against the host.