Jimmy Kimmel hits back after Trump threat against late-night hosts

Jimmy Kimmel is undeterred after President Donald Trump's latest threats against late-night TV.

The comedian responded to the president suggesting that he will come after late-night hosts and taking credit for the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show."

"Shouldn't the president of the United States have more important things to focus on, like finding a replacement for Milli Vanilli at his Coachella from hella on July 4?" Kimmel joked on his June 2 show, referring to the wave of artists dropping out of the Great American State Fair.

"I think Captain Cankleroo might be upset because our show won a Peabody Award on Sunday night," he continued. "I wasn't going to mention it, because I'm not him, but we won a Peabody Award on Sunday, and it wasn't a FIFA Peabody. It was a real one."

In a Truth Social post on June 1, Trump bragged that he has "taken out many bad Political 'Leaders' and Pundits" in the last two weeks, including "REALLY DUMB Stephen Colbert of CBS," and suggested the other late-night TV hosts will be next. He wrote that there are "three more limping Late Night Talk Show Hosts, including Low Ratings Bill Maher and his Fake 'Laughing Machine,' to go."

"I'm not sure I'd be calling us limping when you've got cankles like this, honey," Kimmel quipped, showing a photo of Trump's foot. "Look at that. It's like they put a shoe on a balloon animal made out of sausage links."

Trump has routinely threatened all of the late-night hosts who have made jokes about him, with Kimmel being one of his most vocal critics. The president has also celebrated the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," which CBS has maintained was for financial, not political, reasons.

But the day after Colbert's last show, Trump posted on Truth Social that "Colbert's firing from CBS was the 'Beginning of the End' for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!"

In April, Trump called for Kimmel to be fired after the comedian made a joke about first lady Melania Trump being an "expectant widow." But ABC did not take action against the comedian, who defended the remark as a "very light roast joke" about "their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together."

On May 31, Kimmel received a Peabody Award for his late-night show. In his speech, he joked he felt "pretty dumb" accepting the award and said that "making jokes about the president in America shouldn't win you a prize."

"We have the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to criticize and satirize our leaders," he continued. "This is a right that many of us take for granted."