Jimmy Kimmel mocked Donald Trump’s handling of negotiations with Iran, joking that the president’s “list of threats is now longer than Kash Patel’s bar tab”.
On Wednesday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host brought up the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes.
“The Strait of Hormuz is still closed for business, but the White House says we’re close to a deal,” he said.
“The details of this supposed deal are still very much in flux. As in, what the flux are we doing over there?”
Iran closed the waterway over two months ago after the US and Israel launched a war on the Mideast nation. Iran further restricted traffic through the strait in retaliation for American military operations and a naval blockade.
The strait carried 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas supplies before the war and its closure drove up global energy prices, sparking fears of wider economic fallout.
Talking about the structure of the proposed agreement with Iran, Kimmel continued: “According to sources familiar with it, it would include a moratorium on uranium enrichment for a period of longer than 10 years, which would be only five years shorter than the 15-year deal Obama made that Trump called the worst deal in history.”
He was referring to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by Barack Obama’s administration formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which Trump repeatedly criticised and eventually tore up in 2018.
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“And now he’s going to top it by making an even worse worst deal in history. It’s called The Art of the Deal, folks, you should read the book,” Kimmel said, bringing up Trump’s 1987 memoir.
Kimmel also addressed Trump’s latest warning about military action against Iran. “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts and it will be sadly at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” Trump threatened on his Truth Social platform.
In his post on Tuesday, Trump claimed Iran could end what “Epic Fury”, the name of the US military operation against the country, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by accepting a deal with the US. He added that the “highly effective blockade” which the US imposed on Iranian ports and shipping routes after negotiations failed in April would then allow the waterway to be “open to all, including Iran”.
“His list of threats is now longer than Kash Patel’s bar tab,” Kimmel joked, referring to FBI director Kash Patel and recent allegations about his drinking habit.
The Atlantic reported last month, citing anonymous current and former officials, that Patel had alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences while leading the FBI. Patel called the report “categorically false” and filed a $250m defamation lawsuit against the magazine.
Kimmel continued by mocking Trump’s negotiating style. “But this is how he does it,” he said. “For him, a negotiation, it’s like sex. He’s bad at it. It mostly consists of flailing around. And he can only do it for a short amount of time before he starts yelling that he’s finished.”
The comedian recently mocked Trump’s newest executive order to restore the Presidential Fitness Test in schools nationwide, saying: “Only Donald Trump would bring back a test he would have no chance of passing.”
The US president recently called on ABC to fire Kimmel after the comedian joked in April that First Lady Melania Trump had the glow of an “expectant widow”.
Days after the sketch aired, a gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Trump was in attendance.
