Trump says 'two total losers' Fallon and Meyers should be next after Kimmel's show pulled

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U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” and called on NBC to follow suit after Jimmy Kimmel Show was indefinitely shelved for comments he made regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“Two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening, calling on NBC to pull its late-night offerings — The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Trump also said Kimmel was talentless and his show’s ratings were worse than Stephen Colbert, whose CBS show will be cancelled after this season.

After starting his opening monologue of Monday night’s episode with a few casual jokes about Trump, Kimmel turned to Kirk’s killing.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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,” he said.

“In between the grieving, there was finger-pointing. 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.”

He then showed a clip of Trump, who is asked by a reporter outside the White House how he’s holding up in the wake of Kirk’s death, saying “very good” before turning the gathered media’s attention to the ongoing construction of a new White House ballroom.

“Yes. He’s at the fourth stage of grief. Construction,” Kimmel quipped. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

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In Tuesday’s monologue, Kimmel suggested MAGA supporters were “working very hard to capitalize” on Kirk’s murder and shared a clip of Vice-President JD Vance hosting the late podcaster’s show from the White House, in which he said, “it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.”

Kimmel disagreed and said, “the president and his henchmen are doing their best to fan the flames so they can, I guess, attack people on the dangerous left.”

On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr called the comments “some of the sickest conduct possible” and suggested it could give his office reason to act.

“They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr told right-wing commentator Benny Johnson.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s gonna be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Texas-based Nexstar Media Group announced its decision to immediately “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future” shortly thereafter.

The company, the single largest local television broadcasting group with more than 200 owned or partner stations through network affiliates, including 26 ABC stations, said it objected to Kimmel’s remarks.

“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” broadcasting division president Andrew Alford said in a statement.

“Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”

Following Nexstar’s decision, Sinclair Media Group, the second-largest local television broadcaster with 178 stations, also condemned Kimmel’s “inappropriate and deeply insensitive” comments and announced its decision to take away his timeslot.

Neither broadcasting group has specified which of Kimmel’s remarks got the show pulled, but news reports suggest it was what he said on Monday.

This Friday night, a special broadcast in remembrance of Kirk will be available to its ABC stations to fill the timeslot, the company said.

Sinclair called on Kimmel to apologize directly to Kirk’s family and “make a meaningful and personal donation” to them and Turning Point USA.

It also said their suspension of the show would continue, regardless of what ABC decides for its future, until it is “confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

“This incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks,” said Vice-chairman Jason Smith.

Others, meanwhile, have stood against the network and broadcasters’ decisions, labelling it censorship and an attack on free speech.

On X, California Governor Gavin Newsom said Trump’s administration “does not believe in free speech” and is censoring people “in real time.”

“Buying and controlling media platforms. Firing commentators. Canceling shows. These aren’t coincidences,” he wrote in from his personal account. “It’s coordinated. And it’s dangerous.”

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker urged people to stand up to the “undemocratic act.”

“A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say,” he wrote on X. “This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.”

The Writers’ Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) also issued statements about the Kimmel decision, with the latter saying it “endangers everyone’s freedoms.”

“Our society depends on freedom of expression. Suppression of free speech and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on,” SAG-AFTRA wrote.

The WGA, meanwhile, wrote that true free speech, even that which disturbs others, is core to the identity of a free people and can’t be denied by violence, government’s abusing power or “acts of corporate cowardice.”

“If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to — painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree.

“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.

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