Like many other talk shows, Jimmy Kimmel Live! regularly includes many jokes about the biggest news scandals of the day. In fact, Kimmel's willingness to tackle controversial topics and how he has responded to being wrapped up in scandals himself resulted in him being given an award. One recent example of Kimmel mocking the news of the day is the fact that he cracked several jokes about Elon Musk and other tech CEOs collectively being named as Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
Of course, anyone who has followed Kimmel's career in recent years will know that one of the most common topic that he has made jokes about on his talk show is Donald Trump. Similarly, Trump has often called out Kimmel for a variety of reasons. After Trump recently posted about Kimmel, the talk show host responded by questioning whether Trump might have a crush on him.
Jimmy Kimmel mockingly asked if Donald Trump has a 'crush' on him
In December 2025, Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Honors. As he prepared to talk at that event, Trump answered several questions from reporters when he was on the red carpet. One of those questions that Trump was asked about focused on how he'd prepared to host the show. As a part of his response, Trump name-checked the past TV hosts he called greats, and one he was a lot less complimentary of.
"He even waddled the red carpet, where he was all fired up. How have you prepared to host tonight? Well, maybe I haven't prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats. If you look at the not-so-greats, like Jimmy Kimmel. He’s terrible."
Of course, Trump expressing that he doesn't respect Kimmel as a host shouldn't surprise anyone who has paid attention to the President's comments and Truth Social posts. After all, Trump has often been outspoken about not liking the jokes that Kimmel has made about him. Obviously aware of that, Kimmel went on his talk show and responded to Trump calling him "terrible."
At first, Kimmel feigned that he was bothered by Trump's comments about him, even though it was obvious that he felt utterly unfazed. Then, Kimmel transitioned to commenting about being a regular target of Trump's ire. While discussing how much the President has talked about him in the past, Kimmel questioned whether Trump might have a crush.
“That's very hurtful. I thought we were friends. I don't know what's going on. He is really fixated. I'm starting to think he might have a crush on me.”
Before Kimmel commented on his own relationship with Trump, he made jokes about the fact that Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Honors at all. After showing footage of Trump boasting that he was the first President to host the awards show, Kimmel joked that there was a good reason for that. Kimmel then remarked that Neil Patrick Harris has never launched a military strike on a fishing boat in a clear attempt to make Trump boasting about being the first President awards show host seem absurd.
Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on ABC.