Trump congratulates ABC for pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘ratings-challenged’ show

President Donald Trump praised Disney’s ABC on Wednesday evening for indefinitely pulling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show following his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

ABC made the decision shortly after Nexstar Media Group, one of the largest U.S. TV station owners, announced it would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its owned and partner ABC-affiliated stations. On Truth Social, Trump lauded the network for having the “courage to do what had to be done.”

“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. 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 [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote.

The indefinite removal of the late-night hosts’ show comes after his Monday monologue in which he said the “MAGA gang” had hit “new lows,” as he claimed that Republicans had attempted to characterize Kirk’s alleged assassin as “anything other than one of them.”

“We had 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,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was 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 then played a clip of Trump discussing how he was “holding up” after the murder of Kirk, whom he had been close to. As the audience laughed, Kimmel mocked Trump’s reaction, saying it resembled how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.

Earlier on Wednesday, during an appearance on “The Benny Show,” Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr labeled Kimmel’s response as “some of the sickest conduct,” floating the possibility of a “suspension” by the FCC.

“In some quarters, there’s a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people about the nature … of one of the most significant newsworthy public interest acts that we’ve seen in a long time in what appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or a Republican-motivated person,” Carr said.

“And I’ve been very clear from the moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I want to reinvigorate the public interest. And what people don’t understand is that the broadcasters, and you’ve gotten this right, are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr added.

Prior to the arrest of Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, officials revealed bullet casings from the rifle used to kill Kirk contained a series of phrases such as “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this you are gay LMAO.” A third bullet casing also had the engraving of “bella ciao,” which matches an Italian song name that became a left-wing anthem during World War II.

Amid online speculation from Democrats that Robinson might have been a radical right-winger, the 22-year-old was officially arrested Friday. At a press conference, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Robinson “was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology” and had increasingly become political, viewing Kirk as “full of hate and spreading hate.”

Text messages released by officials on Tuesday — as authorities officially brought charges forward against Robinson — revealed an alleged conversation between him and his transgender roommate.

In one message to his roommate, Robinson allegedly told the roommate to look under his keyboard for a note that allegedly said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”

“I had enough of his hatred,” Robinson allegedly texted to the roommate. “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

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