Trump steps up attacks on ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, says network should 'get
the bum off the air'
[November 21, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks against
ABC and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, urging the network to
“get the bum off the air” in a social media post sent shortly after the
comic's latest episode ended.
The president this week had also expressed anger at the network's chief
White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, for questions she asked in an
Oval Office meeting, which his press staff followed with a 17-point memo
listing grievances against ABC News.
Trump's latest attack against Kimmel came two months after ABC
temporarily suspended the comic for remarks made following the
assassination of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. ABC lifted the suspension
following a public outcry.
Kimmel's show Wednesday night began with a blistering monologue about
Trump, the first 10 minutes concentrated on the late sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein and Congress' vote this week to release more material
from Epstein's correspondence. He noted the country was carefully
following the movements of “Hurricane Epstein.”
“We are ever closer to answering the question: What did the president
know, and how old were these women when he knew it?” Kimmel said,
riffing off a question Sen. Howard Baker Jr. asked about Richard Nixon
during the Watergate saga in the 1970s.
Trump struck back in a Truth Social post sent at 12:49 a.m. Eastern.
“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY
POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air? Why do the TV Syndicates put up
with it?" Trump said. The latter was a reference to ABC affiliates, some
of whom got the movement toward Kimmel's brief suspension started in
September by complaining about his Kirk content.
ABC said it would not comment about Trump's statement on Kimmel, whose
ratings saw a bump upon his return to the air in September. While Trump
associated him with ABC News, Kimmel works for the network's
entertainment division.
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Jimmy Kimmel arrives at the third annual Rare Impact Fund Benefit: A
Night of Radiance & Reflection on Oct. 29, 2025, at nya studios WEST
in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
 Kimmel isn't the only late-night
comic to draw Trump's ire lately. Over the weekend, he called for
the firing of NBC's Seth Meyers.
The Epstein case was one of three topics that ABC's Bruce asked
about in pointed questions during an Oval Office news conference
Tuesday. The president called Bruce a “terrible reporter” and said
he didn't like her attitude. The Epstein story has clearly gotten
under Trump's skin. Late last week, Trump referred to a Bloomberg
News reporter, Catherine Lucey, as “piggy” during a
question-and-answer session on Air Force One.
On Wednesday, the White House press office released a letter
outlining grievances against ABC News, some dating back to the
president's first term. “ABC ‘News’ is not journalism,” the press
office said. “It's a Democrat spin operation masquerading as a
broadcast network."
Among the complaints: George Stephanopoulos' inaccurate claim that
Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean
Carroll, for which ABC's parent Disney Corp. agreed to pay $15
million to settle a defamation lawsuit; the network's fact-checking
of Trump during his 2024 presidential debate with Kamala Harris; and
former ABC correspondent Terry Moran calling Trump aide Stephen
Miller a “world-class hater.”
There was no immediate comment from ABC News about the criticism.
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