Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is once again finding himself in hot water with MAGA supporters. This time, it's over a joke about newly sworn-in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Earlier this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel took aim at Mullin’s background while poking fun at President Donald Trump and his staffing choices. Mullin replaces the recently reassigned Kristi Noem, who also became an easy target for the likes of Kimmel and other late-night TV hosts.
After noting that President Trump had a “whole new generation of thinkers lined up,” Kimmel zeroed in on Mullin’s career prior to becoming a politician. “Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber,” Kimmel said with a grin. “That’s right, we have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. Well, it worked for Super Mario, why not Markwayne.”
Mullin, who was sworn in as head of the Department of Homeland Security on March 24, has long embraced his blue-collar roots. He took over his family business, Mullin Plumbing, in 1997 when it had just six employees. By 2011, the company had grown into the largest plumbing business in Oklahoma.
Despite the company's success, Kimmel doesn't think it qualifies Mullin to run such a vital department within the federal government. Yet Kimmel's decision to focus on Mullin's career history made it an easy talking point for those on the right to jump on.
Longtime Kimmel enemy Senator Ted Cruz fired back on X, writing, “I prefer plumbers to woke & unfunny comedians.” Representative Mike Collins echoed the sentiment, accusing “elites” of looking down on working-class Americans and trying to demean Mullin by highlighting his background.
The backlash is nothing new for Kimmel. While not rising to the level of the fallout from his Charlie Kirk comments, the jab at Mullin serves as another example of how closely Kimmel is watched. Whether it’s politicians or pundits, someone in Team Trump or the MAGA world usually has something to say about the late-night host's opinions.
At the same time, it's hard to ignore the hypocrisy that comes with the outrage from the right. Republicans have frequently mocked Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her past work as a bartender, suggesting that job history can be fair game to discredit a political opponent.
Apparently, Kimmel isn't allowed to do the same. The late-night comedian should be the one free to lob such jokes, but perhaps it's that he's become something of a political figure himself that he ends up in these kinds of "controversies." His monologues have made him fair game to be considered an "elite" by Republicans.
With that in mind, it's highly unlikely that Kimmel will take back his comments or issue an apology. It's clearly too much fun for him to get the right all worked up.