Jimmy Kimmel roasted President Donald Trump for chickening out of his ultimatum to Iran and predicted how his two-week extension on his deadly threat might ultimately end.
Trump posted an ominous threat on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, warning he would wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran by 8 p.m. ET. He promised to bomb the nation’s power plants if Iranian leaders didn’t agree to “fully open, without threat” the Strait of Hormuz.
At 6:32 p.m. ET, Trump announced a “double-sided ceasefire” that would last “two weeks.” The president said he had received a “10-point proposal from Iran” that provided a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Trump’s eleventh-hour decision has been described by Iran as a “humiliating concession,” in part because he doesn’t appear to have achieved his goal of a fully open Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, claimed in a statement posted on Trump’s Truth Social account that the U.S. had accepted the “general framework” of Iran’s peace plan. The 10-point plan proposes allowing Iran to charge a fee of up to $2 million on ships traveling through the strait, although no official agreement has been reached.
Kimmel agreed with the critics in his Tuesday monologue:
“It was the Taco Tuesday of all Taco Tuesdays,” Kimmel joked. He was referring to the popular Democrat phrase “TACO Trump,” which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
Kimmel zeroed in on Trump’s “two-week” extension of his ultimatum.
“This is how it goes, every single time,” Kimmel said. “Trump says something insane. He says, ‘I’m going to kill everybody tomorrow at 5 p.m.’ We all freak out. Then he’s like, ‘You know what, actually, I’ll kill everyone in two weeks.’”
“Then we relax, and then he forgets he ever said it in the first place,” said Kimmel.
Kimmel joked further, “He has the memory and the skin color of a goldfish.”
Kimmel played a decade-spanning montage of Trump promising to make important decisions in two weeks. The clip included Trump’s unfulfilled 2020 promise to announce a healthcare plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Kimmel predicted that Trump’s two-week deadline for Iran will hold as little weight as his previous two-week deadlines.
“[Trump’s] a big talker,” Kimmel said. “He yaps.”
Not all of Trump’s deadlines have been two weeks, however. On Mar. 21 Trump threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants if they didn’t open the Strait within 48 hours. He soon extended the deadline for five more days, then extended that deadline by 10 more days.
CNN World News shared a statement Tuesday night released by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which described Trump’s concession as “an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat.”
Trump lashed out repeatedly at CNN on social media, accusing them of reporting a “knowingly false and dangerous statement.”
A CNN spokesperson defended its reporting to the Daily Beast, explaining, “The statement in question was obtained by CNN from Iranian officials and reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets. We received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.”
CNN reporter Matthew Chance elaborated on the statement, noting that it was sent to CNN by “Iran’s highest military body.”
