Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel didn’t hold back Tuesday when President Donald Trump tried to dismiss the nationwide protests over immigration enforcement and the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis as “fake.” Instead of rolling clips or soft-pedaling, Kimmel’s monologue was a full-throated gut-punch to Trump’s credibility and the administration’s narrative.
Trump, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, insisted that protests spurred by Good’s death — captured on video and widely shared — weren’t real demonstrations but staged “fake riots,” claiming protesters “take hotel rooms… and all practice together.” He painted the unrest as a sort of scripted production rather than legitimate public outrage.
That’s when Kimmel lit into him. With his usual blend of sarcasm and disbelief, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host blasted the president’s assertions, mocking the idea that thousands of Americans protesting the Minneapolis ICE killing were somehow actors in a rehearsal.
“First they want us to believe that we did not see what we all saw happen to Renee Good. Now he wants us to believe the protests aren’t real,” Kimmel said in the video below, invoking the “Emperor’s New Clothes” to underscore the surreal denial.
The comedian didn’t stop at mocking the optics; he skewered the content of Trump’s claims. After reading Trump’s Truth Social post warning that Minnesota faces a flood of “deranged criminals” and a “day of reckoning,” Kimmel joked about the spectacle, quipping that the president now sounded like “the Undertaker at WrestleMania” and calling him an “old nut” rambling on about fabricated chaos.
Kimmel also turned the spotlight on the administration’s broader handling of Good’s death and its aftermath. The shooting by an ICE agent — captured by bystanders — has triggered protests and outrage, with many seeing Trump’s attempt to delegitimize demonstrators as an effort to obscure the facts on the ground, not explain them. “They’re investigating the victims instead of the perpetrator,” Kimmel said, echoing sentiments shared by critics who argue the government’s response has focused more on narrative control than accountability.
In his closing remarks, Kimmel made it clear he saw past the theatrics. “I really don’t know what this old nut is rambling about,” he said, underscoring a disconnect between the president’s claims and the lived reality of protesters, their communities, and the footage driving national attention.
Tonight’s monologue wasn’t just late-night humor — it was a public rebuke of a president attempting to rewrite the optics of a tragic event and massive public outcry. In Kimmel’s telling, dismissing real protests as fabrications isn’t comedy — it’s delusion.
Watch the clip below:
