Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s posts: ‘The only president who teases a bombing the same way ABC promotes episodes’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s expletive-laden social media posts about the war in Iran and mocked his tonally jarring White House Easter egg roll.

Jimmy Kimmel

Much has happened since Jimmy Kimmel Live! went on a one-week spring break. “It’s hard to believe it was only a week off,” the host said on Monday evening. “It seems like we’ve been gone for a year. So much stuff happened while we were off.”

Among the many things for Kimmel to recap was a rumor that Trump spent the weekend in a hospital. “You know, there’s a rumor going around over the weekend that Trump had been hospitalized at Walter Reed because he didn’t appear in public from Wednesday to Sunday,” he explained.

“The White House was aggressively defensive. They wrote, ‘Deranged liberals cook up insane conspiracy theories when @Potus goes 12 hours without speaking to press,’” he continued. “Maybe that’s because our deranged president never goes more than 12 minutes without speaking to press.

“But to be clear, Trump was not hospitalized this weekend, even though he definitely should have been. He made it up. He made up for today with a lengthy press conference/proof of life.”

That would be a headline-grabbing, expletive-laden social media tirade about Iran. The US president posted on his Truth Social website: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

“I believe that’s a letter from Paul to the Corinthians,” Kimmel quipped. “We’ve heard the word unhinged a lot this weekend but … let me set the scene. You’re finishing your Easter brunch, cleaning up, the kids are running out to the yard to find jelly beans, and suddenly your 79-year-old grandpa stands up and yells: ‘Open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell! Praise be to Allah!’”

“You’d put him in the car and drive him straight to the emergency room, right?” Kimmel added. “But not the Trumps.”

The comedian then read Trump’s follow-up post, which said simply: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”

“He’s the only president who teases a bombing the same way ABC promotes new episodes of Will Trent,” Kimmel quipped.

Except today, “he changed that deadline”, the host added. “He said Iran could be taken out by midnight tomorrow, but he didn’t specify if that’s our tomorrow or their tomorrow. He could start a world war three over a time zone error. Things are running like a Swiss watch, folks.”

Stephen Colbert

And on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert wished viewers a wonderful holiday weekend, “whether you celebrated Passover or Easter or, like our president, went 100% cage-free crazy on the internet”.

“You know, it is not often that a network has to bleep the words of a sitting president,” Colbert added on Trump’s curse-laden Truth Social post.

As for his follow-up post teasing something at 8pm on Tuesday – “he could be announcing a military attack in prime time tomorrow,” Colbert noted. “He also might just be promoting NCIS: 23 Seasons of Solving Boat Crime.”

“Keep in mind: this promise of raining hell if Iran doesn’t open up the strait is the exact opposite of what Trump was saying last week, when he said the strait is a problem that’s ‘not for us’,” the host continued.

“But now, he’s back in with a hard deadline of tomorrow night. And this one is serious. Not like on March 21, when Trump said he would ‘hit and obliterate’ power plants if Iran didn’t reopen the strait within 48 hours. Or two days after that, when he postponed strikes for five more days. Or four days later, when he postponed attacks for 10 days, which would’ve made the deadline today, April 6, except yesterday he said it’ll be tomorrow.

“At this point, he’s tried every tactic except passive-aggressive parental guilt trip – ‘Well, I guess you won’t open the strait of Hormuz before I die, but … that’s fine! I mean, who needs oil when I’m clearly never going to have grandchildren.’”

The host then pivoted to a very strange edition of the White House’s annual Easter egg roll, during which Trump gave ominous and threatening comments about Iran to reporters while being nearly drowned out by celebratory band music. Trump said: “They don’t want to cry, as the expression goes, uncle. But they will. And if they don’t, then they’ll have no bridges, they’ll have no power plants, they’ll have no anything.”

“I really got a feel for that peppy Easter band,” Colbert said. But “it’s hard to keep up your festive tootling while the president threatens to blow up civilian infrastructure”.