Donald Trump aimed another verbal jab at Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday, remarking, “he’s even less intelligent than I anticipated,” following the late-night TV host’s airing of a critical comment from the former president during the Oscars ceremony.
During an interview on Fox News’s MediaBuzz about his ongoing feud with the ABC host, Trump expressed his amusement, stating, “Now, look, look, Jimmy Kimmel is every night… every night, he’s hitting me, I suppose, his ratings are terrible.”
“I hear he hits me all the time, so I figured I’d hit him because I thought he was a lousy host,” he continued.
The recent exchange of verbal blows between the two commenced last week when Kimmel reacted on live television to the former president’s critique of his hosting abilities during the 96th annual Academy Awards.
Kimmel asserted that he aimed to present a “review” to the audience and subsequently disclosed that Trump had posted the appraisal on Truth Social less than an hour before Kimmel recited it on live television.
“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” he said, relaying Trump’s post to the audience. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.”
In response, Kimmel fired back, expressing his “surprise” at seeing Trump still awake, and concluded with a sardonic remark, “Isn’t it past your bedtime behind bars?” This latest jab at the former president is part of an ongoing pattern that has persisted for years.
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 16, 2018
On Sunday, Trump mentioned that he hadn’t anticipated Kimmel would read his post during the awards ceremony, let alone decide to do so just before the announcement of the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Trump highlighted that backstage, some individuals advised Kimmel against reading the post aloud, a fact which Kimmel also confirmed after the awards show, according to Breitbart News.
“Now the big story is that they all begged him not to do it…’don’t do it.’ He probably stupidly, you know he had to act in a short period of time, like minutes, right? He had minutes because he’s on air. He sees this thing and he wants to go out there and he wants to, I guess confront me and so…he ends up reading my Truth,” Trump quipped.
“I said, ‘this guy’s even dumber than I thought.’ The thing went viral, it’s been all over the world now and all he had to do is keep his mouth shut.”
