Donald Trump is apparently fine with being called “Uncle Scam,” “King Lear with two E’s,” and “an incontinent Sasquatch”—three actual insults Jimmy Kimmel used to describe him on his show over the past week. Just don’t denigrate the size of the crowds at his rallies.
At a Saturday rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, Trump singled out the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host over one particular slight.
“This loser, Jimmy Kimmel,” Trump began, before recounting Kimmel’s description of one of his recent rallies as “sparsely attended.”
“Sparsely attended?” Trump said. “They had to walk thousands of people. These people are crooked people. They’re losers.”
Back in the studio Monday night, Kimmel seemed almost touched that, of everything he’s said about Trump last week, this was the thing that stuck.
“Of all the many moronic and criminal words and deeds I detailed—that’s what bothers him?” Kimmel asked. “Me pointing out the fact that his rallies have empty seats?”
“Well, in that case,” he continued, “let’s do it again.”
The original offense came Thursday, when Kimmel introduced footage of Trump in San Antonio by noting that he was appearing “at another sparsely attended rally.”
On Monday, Kimmel showed photos of empty seats at a number of recent Trump rallies.
“There were even empty seats at the rally where he complained about me saying he had empty seats at the rally,” he pointed out.
Kimmel also mocked Trump’s explanation that the empty sections are the result of supporters leaving their seats to move closer to the stage.
“Isn’t it interesting that that never happens at a Lakers game—people just moving up to the front—but it does at an event controlled by the United States Secret Service?”
“This is from his rally in Alabama,” he said as two more images appeared onscreen with empty seats circled, before adding one final jab: “Much like Trump’s cognitive function—not at full capacity.”
Watch Kimmel’s full Monday night monologue at the top of this post.
