Former President Donald Trump grew frustrated with a late-night comedian and told his staff to demand Disney take action against him, according to a report.
On Sunday, Rolling Stone reported that two former Trump administration officials say the former president was extremely upset about Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes in 2018. He told his staff at the White House to phone one of the top executives at Disney to demand the company do something about it.
The former officials told the outlet, in at least two different phone calls that occurred around the time Trump was completing the first year of his presidency, the White House expressed the weight of Trump’s anger with Kimmel.
Trump’s staff explained he wanted Disney to “rein in” the host.
They also reportedly said Trump felt Kimmel had, according to one former senior administration official, been “very dishonest and doing things that [Trump] would have once sued over,” as Rolling Stone reported.
According to the report, other officials of the Trump administration who had nothing to do with the matter began hearing from individuals at Disney about how they were confused that the “White House kept telling them Trump wanted Kimmel to tone down his anti-Trump humor.”
A third former official told Rolling Stone, “At least one call was made to Disney [that I know of].”
The former official added, “I do not know to who[m], but it happened. Nobody thought it was going to change anything but DJT was focused on it so we had to do something…It was doing something, mostly, to say to [Trump], ‘Hey, we did this.’”
Rolling Stone identified one of the targets as former Disney top lobbyist Richard Bates.
The sources said Trump’s staff contacted Bates to explain the extent of his anger surrounding Kimmel’s commentary, per the outlet.
Bates notably died in December of 2020.
Ultimately, the attempt to get Disney to take action failed.
Trump has been openly critical of late-night hosts in the past.
In May 2020, Trump took to Twitter to congratulate a Fox News host on his ratings while taking a shot at late-night hosts.
“Wow! Congratulations to Greg Gutfeld, a one time Trump Hater who has come all the way home. His Ratings easily beat no talent Stephen Colbert, nice guy Jimmy Fallon, and wacko ‘last placer’ Jimmy Kimmel. Greg built his show from scratch, and did a great job in doing so,” Trump tweeted.
Wow! Congratulations to Greg Gutfeld, a one time Trump Hater who has come all the way home. His Ratings easily beat no talent Stephen Colbert, nice guy Jimmy Fallon, and wacko “last placer” Jimmy Kimmel. Greg built his show from scratch, and did a great job in doing so. @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020
Stephen Colbert issued his response, criticizing Trump for not focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s nice to know that Trump is staying laser-focused on the ball during a crisis,” he said, adding, “It reminds me of FDR.”
Kimmel reacted, saying, “I think maybe this was another typo situation. I think what he meant to tweet was, ‘I am completely devastated by the loss of life caused by this insidious virus. My thoughts are with the families of those who’ve passed. I pledge to spend every waking moment working to make sure our medical workers have the support they need and every American has access to tests. P.S. Congrats to Greg Gutfeld!’ That’s better, right?”
