Santa Claus brought gifts, but Jimmy Kimmel brought the jokes in a Christmas speech, where he dragged Donald Trump as “the guy who thinks he is our king.”
The late-night host delivered a scathing attack Thursday on the American president as part of British broadcaster Channel 4’s annual Alternative Christmas Message.
“From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here,” Kimmel said, according to a transcript published by Variety.
Kimmel immediately addressed when his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, became a political flashpoint in September after it was briefly pulled off the air in what many viewed as an act of political censorship.
“My country’s president would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored,” Kimmel went on. “The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air.”
The comedian then touched on the massive protest against Disney, which ultimately brought his show back on air within a week, referring to it as a “Christmas miracle.”
“Millions and millions of people stood up and said: ‘No, this is not acceptable,’” he said. “We won, the president lost and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking.”
Referring to Trump, 79, as “King Donny the Eighth,” Kimmel slammed the president as “figuratively and literally tearing down the structures of our democracy.”
“From the free press, to science, to medicine, to judicial independence, to the actual White House itself, we are a right mess,” he said, adding an apology to United Kingdom residents for the toll it’s taken on their country.
“And we want you to know—or, at least I want you to know—that we’re not all like him. We’re not all like that,” Kimmel said, urging Brits not to “give up” on Americans.
Channel 4 chose Kimmel as the network’s annual speaker, typically a high-profile, often polarizing figure who delivers counterprogramming to the monarch’s annual Christmas address.
Since launching in 1993, previous hosts have included French movie star Brigitte Bardot, whistle-blower Edward Snowden, and the former President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Following his return to air and his much-publicized criticism of the U.S. administration, Kimmel will reflect on the past few months in a deeply personal and characteristically jovial address,” the network said of the message ahead of its airing.
Earlier on Thursday, King Charles III made a case for unity amid increasing polarization and divisiveness in an address that garnered about seven million viewers, according to preliminary ratings.
“With the great diversity of our communities we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong,” the King said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
