Jimmy Kimmel appeared at the Oscars on Sunday, where he made a series of harsh digs at Donald Trump and his wife’s movie, Melania.
“Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” Kimmel said, just before presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature. The first lady’s vanity documentary was skewered by critics before an underwhelming box office run, during which it made only a fraction of its cost to make.
The late-night host had more burns in his arsenal when he presented the award for Best Documentary Short.
“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage,” he said. “As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which.”
“Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” he added, as the network undergoes its MAGA makeover.
“Fortunately for all of us there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” Kimmel continued in another not-so-subtle allusion to the first lady’s much-maligned film.
Kimmel has been in a heated back-and-forth with the president since he took office for the second time last January. In September, the late-night host was briefly suspended from ABC’s airwaves over comments he made about the assassination of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk.
Just this past week on his late-night show, Kimmel spent several minutes mocking Melania. “Between this and Sinners, it’s been a big year for vampire movies,” he joked, before highlighting some of the film’s most “dreadfully dull” moments.
