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ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he got Italian citizenship and threatened to move due to President Donald Trump's administration.
“I do have… I did get Italian citizenship. I do have that,” Kimmel said during an appearance on the Sarah Silverman Podcast last week, claiming he's considered leaving the United States permanently after Silverman, his ex-girlfriend and longtime friend, acknowledged that several of Trump's fiercest critics have taken similar action.
“What’s going on is… as bad as you thought it was gonna be, it’s so much worse. It’s just unbelievable. I feel like it’s probably even worse than [Trump] would like it to be,” Kimmel responded.
The talk show host also said he didn't have negative feelings about former MAGA supporters who have changed their political stance since Trump's second administration began in January, specifically naming podcaster Joe Rogan who, along with Doug Stanhope, served as his and Adam Carolla's successors as hosts of the former Comedy Central series The Man Show.
“There are a lot of people… now you see these clips of Joe Rogan saying, ‘Why’s he doing this? He shouldn’t be deporting people.’ People go, ‘F**k you, you supported him.’ I don’t buy into that. I don’t believe ‘F**k you, you supported him,'”
“I think the door needs to stay open. If you want to change your mind, that’s so hard to do. If you want to admit you were wrong, that’s so hard and so rare to do. You are welcome.”
Kimmel's comments came after Trump threatened to take down his show after Paramount recently announced that it planned to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert next year.
“Well, it hasn’t worked,” Trump said of the current late-night TV slate. “And it hasn’t worked, really, for a long time, and I would say pretty much from the beginning. Colbert has no talent.”
“I mean, I could take anybody here. I could go outside in the beautiful streets and pick a couple of people that do just as well or better. They’d get higher ratings than he did. He’s got no talent,” he continued.
“[Tonight Show host Jimmy] Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They’re next. They’re going to be going. I hear they’re going to be going. I don’t know, but I would imagine because they’d get — you know, Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon.”
Paramount's decision came days after it agreed to a settlement that could pay Trump north of $30 million in relation to his election interference lawsuit stemming from its 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election, FOX News reported.