Donald Trump blasts Kimmel at Charlie Kirk memorial: 'I hate my opponents'

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Fresh off of branding former late-night host David Letterman as a “LOSER,” U.S. President Donald Trump went after Jimmy Kimmel at the weekend memorial for assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel was pulled off the air “indefinitely” by Disney’s ABC after comments he made last Monday night in which he floated a conspiracy theory that Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, was actually a pro-Trump Republican.

“The MAGA gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

Kimmel also mocked the U.S. president’s response to Kirk’s death.

“In between the finger-pointing, there was, uh, grieving — on Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this,” Kimmel said, before cutting to a clip where Trump fielded questions from reporters wondering how he was taking the news by pointing to construction at the White House.

Letterman, who hosted The Late Show until 2015, called Kimmel’s benching “misery.”

“I feel bad about this because we’ll see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media, and it’s no good,” Letterman said while speaking at the Atlantic Festival. “It’s ridiculous, and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian and criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.” 

Trump, who cheered on ABC for sidelining Kimmel, lashed out at Letterman in a fiery post shared on Truth Social.

“Whatever happened to the very highly overrated David Letterman, whose ratings were never very good, either?” Trump wrote. “He looks like hell, but at least he knew when to quit. LOSER!!!”

At Kirk’s memorial on Sunday, Trump praised the slain founder of Turning Point USA as a “great American hero” and “martyr.”

But he also delivered some harsh words aimed at Kimmel, who is a frequent critic of the president.

“He did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them,” Trump said, speaking of Kirk. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie, I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”

Trump’s speech didn’t mention Kimmel by name, but it was clear who he was talking about about.

“Over the last 11 days, we have heard stories of commentators, influencers and others in our society who greeted his assassination with sick approval … even jubilation … you know their names. They’re major losers,” he said.

“Some of the very people who call you a hater for using the wrong pronoun, were filled with glee at the killing of a father with two beautiful young children. The same commentators, who this week are crying fascism over a cancelled late-night TV show where the anchor had no talent and no ratings, last were implying Charlie deserved what happened to him,” Trump went on to say.

Afterwards, on his way back from Kirk’s memorial service, Trump doubled down on his criticism of Kimmel.

“First of all, he said a terrible thing about Charlie,” Trump told reporters. “But he also suffers from the fact that he’s got no talent and he’s got no ratings. That’s a deadly combination.”

Kimmel has not spoken publicly about ABC’s decision to shelve his show, but according to sources the comedian and his team reached a deal with Disney and ABC to bring Jimmy Kimmel Live! back to TV audiences starting Tuesday night.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.  It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” “Disney and ABC said in a statement shared with Variety. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

After Stephen Colbert was axed by CBS in July, Trump — a frequent target on late-night television — called for Kimmel’s firing.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! (Fox News late-night host) Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

Following news that Kimmel had been put on ice, Trump returned to social media to cheer the report and urge NBC to dump Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

Kirk, 31, was shot Sept. 10 during a speech at Utah Valley University.

His suspected killer, Robinson, 22, was arrested by police after his father turned him in to authorities.

mdaniell@postmedia.com