Jimmy Kimmel's Trump, Melania digs at Oscars 'fell flat' with critics

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was called out for multiple jokes he made about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump during the Oscars on Sunday night.

"Fortunately for all of us, there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk, to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes," Kimmel said as he presented the awards for Best Documentary Short Film and Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars.

The liberal late-night host referred to first lady Melania Trump's documentary, "Melania," which was just released in January, and mocked the president: "Oh, man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this."

The 98th Academy Awards only honored films released in 2025.

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White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung responded to Kimmel's remarks on X, calling the comedian a "classless hack who is self-projecting his depression and sadness onto others."

"He lives a pathetic existence where nobody— not even his family— enjoys his miserable company. The only people giving him any attention are Hollywood Elites," Cheung continued. "BUH-BYE!"

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Kyle Smith, a film critic at the Wall Street Journal, noted that "Melania" would not have been eligible for this year's documentary categories.

"Melania didn’t even come out in 2025. The joke makes no sense," Smith wrote on X.

Smith argued in another post that the late-night host made several Trump jokes that "fell flat."

NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham also weighed in on the dig and said, "Only the hate matters."

Republican candidate for Congress in Florida, Michael Carbonara, said Kimmel "seems more focused on attacking President Trump than delivering comedy."

Kimmel was also called out for the joke he made about CBS and free speech.

"We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage," he sais. "As you know there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS."

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Outkick's Ian Miller slammed Kimmel in a post to X. 

"I’ll give it to Jimmy Kimmel for staying consistent, even when he’s at the Oscar’s, not his own show, and absolutely refusing to tell anything that even remotely resembles a funny joke," he wrote.

NewsBusters writer Alex Christy wrote, "Well, that's just dumb."

Fox News' Joe Concha wrote in reaction to the joke from Kimmel, "And we’ve reached the impossibly insufferable portion of our program…"