Trump, Kimmel Trade Barbs After Colbert’s Cancellation

Stephen Colbert’s canceled, President Trump is on the attack, and Jimmy Kimmel is hitting back.

Trump said Tuesday in a Truth Social post that ABC’s Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” would be “NEXT to go” after CBS declined to renew Colbert’s contract.

“The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” Trump wrote. The president slammed Kimmel and Fallon as having “absolutely NO TALENT” and even blamed them for “destroying what used to be GREAT Television.”

Kimmel clapped back an hour later on Instagram by alluding to The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Trump and disgraced financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019. The Journal reported that a letter bearing Trump’s name was given to Epstein as part of a book created for his birthday in 2003.

In an interview with the Journal, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, saying, “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” and “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” Trump has since sued the Journal over the story, alleging defamation.

“I’m hearing you’re next. Or maybe it’s just another wonderful secret,” Kimmel wrote in the Instagram post, which featured a screenshot of Trump’s post about him.

The Journal reported that the letter bearing Trump’s name said: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Kimmel, Fallon, and spokespeople for ABC, NBC, and CBS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Colbert’s cancellation has drawn scrutiny for its timing, as CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, needs FCC approval for an acquisition by Skydance. This month, Paramount said it had agreed to pay Trump a $16 million settlement. Trump had sued CBS, alleging “60 Minutes” had deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign.

CBS has said that the decision not to renew Colbert’s show was “purely a financial decision.” Colbert’s show was losing roughly $40 million per year, Reuters reported. And as BI’s Peter Kafka wrote, the TV business, including late-night, is “very much challenged.”

Hosts and others in the entertainment community have been sounding off and standing up for Colbert after CBS declined to renew his show when his contract expires in mid-2026.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like what’s going on one bit — these are crazy times,” Fallon said in reference to the Colbert cancellation to open his show on Monday night.

Jon Stewart also blasted CBS’s decision during an expletive-filled monologue on Monday’s “The Daily Show.”

“When your industry is faced with changes, you don’t just call it a day. My God, when CDs stopped selling, they didn’t just go, ‘Oh well, music, it’s been a good run,'” Stewart said.

Stewart and Colbert’s shows share a parent company in Paramount.