The ball is officially in Donald Trump’s court.
In a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett accepted Kimmel’s offer to take part in a televised IQ competition with President Trump.
Kimmel has been talking up his live televised challenge since Monday, when President Trump told reporters he’d “aced” a cognitive screening and challenged both Crockett and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to take the same test and—in Trump’s words—“go against Trump.”
“If you’ve been watching our show over the past two nights, you know I’ve been working on teeing up a major event,” Kimmel explained during his monologue Wednesday night. “I think this could be bigger than the Super Bowl and Jake Paul fighting Dick Van Dyke combined.”
After reintroducing the competition by its full name—The James C. Kimmel Cognitive Aptitude and Mental Brilliance Invitational—Kimmel brought in Crockett, whom Trump had labeled a “low IQ individual” earlier in the week.
Crockett didn’t hesitate to accept. “He can’t seem to find himself in the Oval Office to make sure that he can end this shutdown, but he does have time to troll me,” she said. “So listen, if he’s down, I’m down.”
When Kimmel asked if she’d noticed a pattern in the kinds of people Trump tends to call “low IQ,” Crockett replied, “They tend to be women—and they tend to be women of color.”
“Yes, okay. So you are smart. Okay,” replied Kimmel.
The host then gave her a sample question from the test Trump took, showing her a drawing and asking her to identify it. “It looks like an elephant?” Crockett responded. “Yes, it is an elephant!” Kimmel said. “Wow, you’re going to crush this.”
Crockett’s acceptance makes her the first confirmed participant in what Kimmel is calling “the greatest television show of all time”—a fitting escalation in what’s become a nearly weeklong saga.
Watch Kimmel’s complete conversation with Crockett at the top of this post.
