Former President Donald Trump became a feature during the 96th Academy Awards ceremony when host Jimmy Kimmel read aloud a Truth Social post that widely criticized the media personality’s performance.
Trump described the comedian, host of the ABC News show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” as “washed up” talent in a long post on the social media platform Truth Social, which the GOP presidential candidate founded in 2021. The statement was read out loud by Kimmel during the March 10 ceremony.
Jimmy Kimmel reads Trump’s Truth Social post ripping Kimmel as a mediocre, woke host of this year’s Oscar’s. He lives rent free in these people’s minds. pic.twitter.com/9Jl2iqxa5m
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 11, 2024
Trump opened his digital remarks by asking if there has been “a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars” and blasted the comedian’s opening monologue as a performance from someone who is “less than average” but “trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
The former president added that ABC should replace Kimmel with George Stephanopoulos, whom Trump called “Slopanopoulas,” also calling the political commentator and former Democratic advisor “washed up, but cheap.”
Trump went on to claim that Stephanopoulos’ presence on stage would lead to everyone else appearing “bigger, stronger and more glamorous.” He then said that the show was “really bad politically correct,” noting that the ceremony has been “disjointed, boring and very unfair” for the past several years.
To conclude his rant, the former president suggested awarding Oscars “to those that deserve them” instead of checking boxes for diversity and inclusion, saying that this could be the way to regain approval ratings from both networks and their audience. The last line of his post was his ever-famous campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Kimmel’s decision to read the post out loud on stage during a break in his presentation of the Academy Awards was met with resounding laughter and applause from the audience, as was the insult he threw back at Trump.
After reading the former president’s message, Kimmel thanked him and said he was “surprised” the politician was “still up.” The comedian added the derogatory question, “isn’t it past your jail time,” referring to the presidential candidate’s ongoing legal troubles.
Trump is currently facing criminal charges on both the state and the federal level, being accused of mishandling classified documents as well as interfering with presidential election results in Georgia.
Although both Kimmel and the audience were seemingly mocking Trump with the Sunday’s display, they were subsequently mocked by some conservatives like Benny Johnson, who said in his coverage of the event that the liberal host “took the bait” and had given Trump more attention than left-wing media cares to do.
