Jimmy Kimmel addressed the false rumors about Donald Trump’s death upon return to his eponymous talk show on Tuesday following his annual summer break.
Unfounded rumors swirled on social media this week about the president’s health. Conspiracy theorists pointed to the fact that Trump hadn’t been seen publicly since his Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and had a clear weekend schedule.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host joked: “That’s how much he’s in front of a camera. When we don’t see him there, we assume he must be dead.”
Kimmel quoted Trump insisting that he’s “never felt better,” adding, “Despite the fact that he looks like a pumpkin that got left in a hatchback on a 100-degree day, he is definitely not dead.”
Kimmel then played footage of Trump being asked about the rumors in the Oval Office. “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked the president.
“Watch this,” Kimmel said, replaying the footage. “Who’s the only one smiling in that group?”
He then zoomed in on JD Vance grinning in the background.
“Good old JD,” Kimmel said. “He hears the words ‘Trump dead,’ he lights up like a Christmas tree.”
Kimmel concluded: “Donald Trump will never die. Forget it. He’s like Dracula. He’s gonna keep sucking the life out of us forever.”
Elsewhere on Wednesday’s episode, Kimmel addressed rumors that he was moving to Italy after revealing last month that he had obtained Italian citizenship.
“I’m not moving to Italy,” Kimmel clarified.
“I never said that. This is where I live. This is my country. I have no intention of running away from it, especially because of Donald Trump,” he continued. “Let me tell you something, I would move into Mar-a-Lago if I could, just to drive him insane.”
Kimmel has been one of Trump’s most vocal critics since before his first term in office.
In response, Trump has claimed that Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon will be the next late-night hosts to lose their jobs after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled by CBS.
“Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They’re next. They’re going to be going. I hear they’re going to be going. I don’t know, but I would imagine because they’d get — you know, Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon,” the president told reporters last month.
Other figures from the entertainment world with whom Trump maintains longstanding beefs include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bette Midler, Debra Messing, Rosie O’Donnell, Robert De Niro, and Bruce Springsteen.
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