Jimmy Kimmel brought up the elephant in the room during his big return to the late-night stage Tuesday night, when he addressed rumors that he could flee America to escape Donald Trump.
“Just to be clear, I’m not moving to Italy, I never said that,” the host said in his first show back after a long summer break. “This is where I live, this is my country. I have no intention of running away from it, especially because of Donald Trump.”
He added, “Let me tell you something. I would move into Mar-a-Lago if I could, just to drive him insane.”
The rumors that Kimmel might join a slew of other celebrities who have fled the United States since Trump took office the second time started with his own admission that he’d obtained Italian citizenship.
During an appearance on ex-girlfriend Sarah Silverman’s podcast last month, as Silverman told the late night host, “A lot of people I know are thinking about where are they going to get citizenship,” to escape Trump’s America. Kimmel replied, “I did get Italian citizenship.” Kimmel said he was granted citizenship this year by proving his heritage in the country.
“The MAGA gang went nuts!” with the news, Kimmel said Tuesday, playing a montage of conservative media coverage telling the Trump-critic “good riddance.”
He clarified that his pursuit of citizenship in the country pre-dated his beef with the president. “I’ve been trying to get Italian citizenship for almost 20 years,” he told the audience. “I love Italy. I like the idea of being a citizen there. And mostly what I like to do is bring my passport to parties and show it to people and make them jealous,” he quipped.
The timing of his getting dual citizenship, considering a slow trickling exodus of America’s liberal rich and famous, and the fact that Trump had ramped up his threats at his critics in late-night television, prompted reasonable questions about whether or not he’d truly consider leaving America behind.
He told Silverman in August, “What’s going on is as bad as you thought it was gonna be” after Trump won re-election. “It’s so much worse; it’s just unbelievable… I feel like it’s probably even worse than he would like it to be.” That said, Tuesday Kimmel told viewers he’s way too patriotic to leave America, even while it’s in Trump’s helm.
Showing photos of himself donning red, white, and blue and a tank top with an American flag print on it, he said, “Does this look like a guy who’s moving out of the country? No.” He joked, “I am going to stay here and continue to torture my wife with this tank top.”
Kimmel also addressed CBS’ cancelation of The Late Show in a move widely perceived as a favor to Trump. “The number one thing people asked me about this summer was what happened to Stephen Colbert at CBS,” he said, echoing his previous comment that the network’s claim Late Show was losing $40 million a year is “nonsensical.”
CBS parent company Paramount “miraculously got FCC approval to sell their company, which is what they wanted” after canceling Colbert the same week, Kimmel said, “and I guess that wasn’t enough for El Presidente,” who gloated about the firing and then expressed his “hope” that Kimmel would be next to go.
“You delicate chubby little teacup,” he continued, addressing Trump. “Did we hurt your feelings? You want us to be cancelled because we make jokes about you? I thought you’re against cancel culture,” he quipped. “When did you become so woke?”
Kimmel then revealed that Colbert will be among his guests when his show makes its annual pilgrimage to Brooklyn for a week of East Coast shows later this month.
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