President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. © REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
(Washington, DC) – Can President Donald Trump get better ratings than late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel? Trump seems to think so. And he’s got the upcoming 2025 Kennedy Center Honors — at which he’s the official host — to test the idea.
It will be the first time a sitting president will host the Kennedy Center Honors. And Sunday, in the Oval Office, Trump presented medals to the 2025 honorees. The president made it clear he has not been impressed by past hosts — including Kimmel. “I’ve watched some of the people that host; Jimmy Kimmel was horrible. If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent then I don’t think I should be president,” Trump said. This continues bad blood between Trump and Kimmel, as the ABC talker has made it clear he despises the president in basically everyway.
Earlier this year, the feud between both men was reignited by comments Kimmel made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Kimmel erroneously and outrageously suggested that Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robsion, was a member of the “MAGA movement.” That led to demands from broadcasters Sinclair and Nexstar that he apologize, and Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended or taken off the air in some markets.
As for the Kennedy Center honors — which will be pre-taped and then aired later in December — Trump is well aware the “fake news” will be negative toward his performance, no matter what. “I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say he was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation. No, we’ll do fine.”
This is all more of the same amid a long-running feud and ongoing jabs between Kimmel and Trump. Despite appearing in 2012 to do a tribute for Dave Letterman, Kimmel has never actually hosted the Kennedy Center Honors. He has hosted other award shows. Trump cleared house at the Kennedy Center early into his second term and appointed new members of the board.
Trump is now chairman of the Kennedy Center. He criticized last year’s show as “terrible” and “woke.” This year’s honorees include Sylvester Stallone, KISS, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Crawford. Trump says he was “98%” involved in that selection process. Others were rejected because, as Trump says: “They were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.”
So you can bet the ratings will be closely watched by members of the mainstream news when the show airs later this month.
