Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s racist remarks at rallies: ‘really takes you back about 200 years’

Late-night hosts expressed disgust at Donald Trump’s latest racist attacks while also taking aim at his comments about money.

Jimmy Kimmel

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host started by telling viewers that a Washington Post report had shown the FDA only been performed about 5% of safety checks on food last year.

The host joked that it was “safer to eat a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos than a salad” while congratulating RFK Jr for making America healthy again.

Trump’s approval rating is down to 32%, but Kimmel said that whenever his rating is low, he goes lower. This week has seen more bigotry and racism on the campaign trail with the president saying a string of offensive statements at rallies.

“The way Trump has been talking about non-white people lately really takes you back about 200 years,” he said.

Kimmel noted that “some of [Trump’s] most vomitous attacks” have been aimed at Abdul El-Sayed, a “very strong candidate” for Senate in Michigan – but “if you’re Donald Trump, you call him a terrorist”.

He asked his audience: “Remember when racism was supposed to be a secret?”

Kimmel said that watching Trump is like “your grandpa’s Facebook page live on stage every day” and that “the lies are ridiculous and relentless”.

The president again brought up his claim of giving Americans a $5,000 cheque if Republicans win the midterms. He said that his audience could spend it in Mar-a-Lago but that they could maybe only afford a hamburger.

“Why are you saying this out loud?” Kimmel asked, noting that “he’s completely out of touch and that’s probably for the best. When he is in touch, it’s usually without consent.”

This week also saw Katie Zacharia, Trump’s short-lived press secretary, interviewed on Newsmax, blaming the media and all of Washington for her crash-and-burn tenure.

“Can we bring her back please?” Kimmel joked. “We didn’t get enough time. They killed her quicker than Kenny.”

Trump was again asked this week if he would back JD Vance as a presidential candidate in 2028 but “he dodged that question like it was the war in Vietnam”.

Kimmel moved on to the president’s son Donald Trump Jr and commented that while we know a lot about his wedding, “we haven’t seen him work much”.

His work is “yelling about people who don’t like his father” on a podcast called Triggered.

“How many strokes can one person have in one hour?” he said after playing some bizarre footage.

Seth Meyers

On Late Night, Seth Meyers spoke about the “dueling presidents on the campaign trail” with both Barack Obama and Trump on the campaign trail for midterm votes.

He compared footage of both with Obama making smart and salient points and Trump speaking about Nicki Minaj’s bottom.

“That’s gotta be the end of the ass stuff, right?” Meyers asked.

He proceeded to play a montage of clips where Trump has been talking about men’s bodies with the president claiming it’s actually helping candidates … which it isn’t.

This week saw Trump campaigning for Ken Paxton in Texas, a candidate he has previously criticised on many occasions.

Meyers wondered if his “complimentary mood” would mean he might change his tune on Paxton, but alas.

“Are you trying to get this guy elected or are you trying to convince him to jump off a building?” Meyers said. “You’re supposed to be his hype-man, not the mom from Carrie.”

He asked Trump to “put all this nonsense aside and be serious” but played another weird clip of him talking about loving meat.

“How is this real fucking life?’” he said.

He added: “Trump doesn’t care about anything voters care about … because he and his rich friends are making bank.”

Meyers said that Paxton was “cartoonishly corrupt” with reports of him at an event in Dubai with fugitives and the woman he is cheating on his wife with.

But while people might ask how he is considered a force in the race, Meyers reminded viewers that Elon Musk has been throwing millions at Paxton’s campaign.

Musk’s wealth has increased by 52% under Trump and the president has not even tried to hide that “huge companies and the mega-rich” have been profiting during his time in the White House.

He called it “glaringly obvious” that rich people have got richer as the average American is struggling.

Instead, rightwing pundits have decided to focus on Obama’s throwaway comment about the Cheesecake Factory. But Meyers reminded viewers that this week Trump told his fans that they would struggle to afford a meal at Mar-a-Lago.

He finished by saying that if you’re part of the rich elite then you’ve been doing very well under Trump but “everyone else is getting screwed”.