President Donald Trump joked that he shouldn’t be in office if he can’t outperform comedian Jimmy Kimmel when hosting the Kennedy Center Honors this weekend.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host; Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said on Saturday during an Oval Office ceremony to present the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals.
“If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent then I don’t think I should be president,” he said.
On Sunday, Trump is set to host the glitzy, star-studded event, becoming the first-ever president to do so. Past hosts have included Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Close and David Letterman. The awards recognize individuals for their contributions to American culture through the performing arts. Among the recipients were actor Sylvester Stallone and members of the rock band KISS.
“I’m going to make a prediction,” Trump said. “This will be the highest rated show they’ve ever done.”
“I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right?” he said. “You know, they’ll say he was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation. No, we’ll do fine.”
Kimmel, the host of a late-night talk show on ABC, has exchanged barbs with Trump for years.
During recent monologues, he’s described the Republican president as a “chubby little teacup” and said he appeared to have suffered a stroke. Trump, in turn, has dismissed Kimmel as having “zero talent,” accused him of poor ratings and repeatedly called for the cancellation of his program.
In September, ABC announced it had ‘indefinitely’ suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host’s comments on Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The decision was made shortly after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appeared to pressure the network to “take action” after Kimmel’s monologue on the late conservative activist.
A week later, ABC decided to bring Kimmel back.
Kimmel does not appear to have ever hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, though he appeared on stage in 2012 to pay tribute to David Letterman, an honoree.
Sunday’s award ceremony, which will be taped and broadcast later in December, marks the culmination of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.
Shortly after returning to office in January, Trump ousted the center’s board of trustees and replaced them with loyalists — including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — who voted for him to become chairman of the board.
In recent months, Trump has labeled the center’s programming as “terrible” and “woke,” grousing that it has promoted political correctness and leftist ideology.
He’s also said that he was “98% involved” in selected this year’s honorees, who include singers George Strait and Gloria Gaynor and English actor Michael Crawford.
He added that he “turned down plenty” of potential recipients, saying in August, “They were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.”