Jimmy Kimmel says Donald Trump should live up to his word and go “back to Mar-a-Lago” after his horrible ratings failure at the Kennedy Center awards night.
The late-night host opened his first monologue of 2026 with a pitch-perfect roast of the president, recapping all of Trump’s blunders, big and small, over the holidays. Amongst these was the Kennedy Center Honors, which Trump, 79, personally hosted in December. The CBS broadcast of the 48th annual award ceremony brought the network its smallest audience ever for the show.
“After boasting about what a great host he is and how much better he is than I am and how huge his ratings would be, Trump hosted the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time,” Kimmel said, as the audience erupted in cheers.
Prior to his debut at the honors, the president and former reality TV star ranted about his hosting abilities, saying he could easily “beat” Kimmel in this department. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” he said in the Oval Office a few days the ceremony, falsely claiming that Kimmel had previously hosted the awards.
Kimmel, 58, reminded the audience of Trump’s words, asking the president to stick to his promise.
“You know, as I recall, he said he would step down if this happened, right? He said, ‘If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel, then I don’t think I should be president.’ And well, hey, a deal is a deal,” Kimmel said. “Back to Mar-a-Lago, you go.”
The comedian also displayed media headlines about the show’s low ratings under Trump, adding, “I’d hate to be the White House intern that had to tear that headline out of all the papers and eat them.”
Trump’s Kennedy Center Honors had historically low ratings, averaging 3.01 million viewers, a 25 percent dip from the previous year. The Kennedy Center scrambled to defend these ratings, chalking up the negative press as “evidence of far-left bias” in a statement to the Daily Beast.
The president is becoming increasingly intertwined with the D.C.-based cultural enclave, which opened in 1971 dedicated to the memory of John F Kennedy, the slain president. When he assumed his second term in office, Trump dismissed the entire board of the arts center and installed himself as chairman.
In December 2025, the board of trustees voted “unanimously” to bestow a new name on the venue, where the sign now reads: The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
