Kimmel roasts Trump in 'alternative' White House Correspondents' Dinner

Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY Fri, April 24, 2026 at 2:28 PM UTC

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Kimmel roasts Trump in 'alternative' White House Correspondents' Dinner

President Donald Trump may have kicked comedians out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but Jimmy Kimmel won't let that stop him.

The late-night comedian used Thursday night's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to host his own "alternative" to the annual dinner, which traditionally hosts comedians – including himself in 2012 – but this year will feature renowned mentalist Oz Pearlman during Trump's first appearance as president.

"Our president is a delicate snowflake with the thinnest, fat skin of any human being ever, and that means there's going to be no comedian this year," Kimmel said in his monologue Thursday, April 23. "So I thought, why not take a page from the Kid Rock alternative halftime show and do some of the jokes a comedian might do if our president wasn't a trembling drama queen who's scared of comedy."

1 / 0Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, see late-night hosts who have beefed with President Trump

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!", will resume production after it was pulled off the air Sept. 17, following comments he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing. Kimmel, a frequent critic of Donald Trump, often earned the ire of the president.After the announcement, Trump urged other networks to do the same. Scroll to see the other late-night talk show hosts that have feuded with the president over the years.

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Standing behind a faux correspondents' dinner podium, Kimmel took particularly venomous shots at Trump, interspersed with footage from previous dinners as well as clips of Trump and his allies.

"Look at you all dressed up in formal wear, dresses, tuxedos," he started off. "I haven't seen this much black since every page of the Trump Epstein files."

Welcoming the dinner "guests," Kimmel added, "I'm happy you decided to stay, Mr. President. And don't worry if we bruise your ego, it'll only make your hands look less disgusting." The show then showed a clip of Trump looking on in disdain.

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The digs kept coming, with the comedian taking shots at Trump and the anti-science crowd.

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"In the unfortunate event that our president has a medical emergency tonight, do we have a doctor in the house? I'm sorry, I mean, do we have a Jesus in the house? I always confuse them, too," Kimmel joked, as a clip of Trump showed him giving a tight-lipped smile. "I get why you think you're Jesus. This guy, every time he walks into a room, people say, 'Christ, he's back.'"

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Kimmel continued. "President Trump has accomplished so much during his second term. He passed new incentives for oil and gas. He put the brakes on solar and wind. That will be your legacy, sir, breaking wind and passing gas."

Unsurprisingly, Kimmel did eventually bring it back around to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"I do want to praise the POTUS. Look how far you've come. 30 years ago, you're just some rich guy on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet out of Teterboro," Kimmel said. "But you worked hard. You stayed friends. You shared some wonderful secrets. And because of that, you're able to fly on that plane seven more times. Dreams really do come true."

For the first time in either of his terms, President Trump plans to attend the White House Correspondents' dinner. The shift in hosts follows an extra tempestuous year between the president and comedian hosts of late-night shows like Kimmel, as well as Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, who have also previously spoken at the dinner.

In years past, former U.S. presidents have attended the event and even performed jokes of their own, including Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Joe Biden.

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Kimmel's alternative White House Correspondents' Dinner

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