The winners of the 2024 Oscars were fairly predictable, but host Jimmy Kimmel delivered a surprise at the end of Sunday night’s show with an impromptu performance of his recurring sketch “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.” On Kimmel’s late-night show, he regularly invites stars to read nasty things random people have posted about them on Twitter (or now X). The twist this time: Kimmel was the celebrity and Donald Trump was the random loser spewing vitriol from his flailing social-media site.
Just before Al Pacino presented Best Picture to Oppenheimer, Kimmel said he wanted to share some feedback on his performance as host. At first, it seemed like he was just poking fun at himself by reading a stranger’s internet commentary. “I just got a review: ‘Has there ever been a worst host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?’” the host read from his phone. “His opening was that of a less-than-average person trying too hard to be something which he is not and never can be.”
But the critique started to sound eerily familiar when the author launched into a rant about a specific member of the ABC News team, complete with a goofy nickname. Kimmel continued reading: “‘Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC “talent,” George Slopanopoulous. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamourous.’ Blah, blah, blah, ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.’”
Finally, Kimmel identified Trump, saying, “Okay, now see if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social. Anyone?”
Sure enough, Kimmel was reading right from a message Trump had shared with his 6.7 million Truth Social followers about 45 minutes earlier:
Trump has always loved sharing unsolicited pop-culture commentary on his social-media feeds. (Who could forget his 2012 obsession with Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s relationship? Not me — or Kristen Stewart.) And he criticized the Oscars even during his presidency, most notably in 2020, when he complained at a rally that the South Korean film Parasite won Best Picture, lamenting, “Can we get like Gone With the Wind back, please?”
In the past two years, Trump has seemed particularly desperate for attention during major cultural events that have nothing to do with him. In 2023, he declared that Rihanna’s widely lauded Super Bowl appearance–pregnancy announcement was an “EPIC FAIL” and the “single worst Halftime Show in Super Bowl history.” And last month, hours before Taylor Swift showed up in Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, win the Super Bowl, Trump tried to steal the spotlight by posting his case for why she owes him big and couldn’t possibly endorse Joe Biden (again).
Celebrities usually ignore Trump in these situations, particularly now that he’s an ex-president rambling on a social-media site barely anyone uses outside MAGA circles. But in this case, Kimmel’s final burn made it worth him taking Trump’s bait.
“Well, thank you, President Trump,” Kimmel responded. “Thank you for watching. I’m surprised you’re still up. Isn’t it past your jail time?”
Kimmel didn’t go after Trump in his opening Oscars monologue, and in a post-show interview with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that aired Monday morning, Kimmel said there was debate backstage over whether he should read the former president’s “truth.”
“They’re like, ‘You’ve got a little bit of time’ and I was like, ‘I’m reading the Trump tweet,’ and they’re like, ‘No, no, don’t read that,’” Kimmel said. “[I was like] ‘Yes, I am.’”
On Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host lobbed some more jabs at Trump, saying he felt the former president was just starved for attention.
“He wrote this because he was upset I didn’t mention him on the show, and no one mentioned him on the show,” Kimmel said. “He wasn’t getting any attention. He couldn’t stand it. And so then the Adderall McFlurry kicked in, and he went right on.”
He added: “Funny — we had John Cena onstage naked, and somehow Trump still managed to be the biggest dick of the night.”
This post has been updated throughout.
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