Jimmy Kimmel Thanks ‘Ridiculous’ President Trump in Critics Choice Acceptance Speech

Donald Trump was featured prominently on Jimmy Kimmel’s “thank you” list as the late-night host accepted a Critics Choice Award on Sunday night.

At the awards ceremony held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Kimmel took the stage, along with executive producers Molly McNearney, Jennifer Sharron, and Erin Irwin, when ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! was named Best Talk Show.

In scoring its second-ever win in the CCA category, JKL bested The Daily Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and Hot Ones.

“A FIFA Peace Prize would have better,” Kimmel said after handing the actual trophy off to McNearney (his wife), “but this is nice, too.”

Speaking of the FIFA Peace Prize and that pseudo-accolade’s inaugural winner….

Kimmel—after thanking his fellow executive producers, ABC, and a few randomly chosen CCA voters—gave POTUS credit for making Jimmy Kimmel Live! what it (often) is on any given night. Trump of course derisively name-checks Kimmel on the regular via social media, and he even sicced the FCC on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last fall, resulting in the program’s brief removal from the airwaves.

Here's Jimmy Kimmel's complete Critics Choice Awards acceptance speech pic.twitter.com/LyKd8vzcYF

— LateNighter (@latenightercom) January 5, 2026

“Most of all, I want to thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump, without whom we would be going home empty-handed tonight,” said Kimmel, whose show has been dark over the holiday break but resumes production this Monday, January 5. “So thank you, Mr. President, for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day.”

Kimmel noted, “It’s been a banner couple of weeks” for the Trump administration—including the ongoing Epstein files controversy, at least one new “aced” cognitive test, and this weekend’s military attack on Venezuela and capture of the oil-rich country’s president, Nicolás Maduro—”and we can’t get wait to get back on the air tomorrow night to talk about them.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘s guests this week include Ben Affleck, Erin Doherty, Molly Tuttle, Nikki Glaser, Joel Edgerton, Debbie Gibson, Alan Cumming, Taylor Dearden, Denis Leary, Rachel Maddow, and HUNTR/X.