President Donald Trump used his speech honoring Charlie Kirk to boast about the suspension of a late-night host while declaring his war on free speech has turned a corner.
Delivering a eulogy-turned-rally speech at a packed memorial for Kirk in Arizona on Sunday, Trump found an opportunity to take a veiled swipe at comedian Jimmy Kimmel, whose long-running talk show was pulled indefinitely following comments he made about Kirk’s death. Trump boasted that, “we’ve turned that corner very quickly.”
ABC announced the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week after Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr threatened to take action against the network over the comedian’s Monday night monologue.
“Over the last 11 days, we have heard stories of commentators, influencers, and others in our society who greeted his assassination with sick approval, excuses, or even jubilation,” Trump said. “You’ve heard, so have I. Couldn’t believe it. Some of the same people who spent the last eight years in moral judgment of anyone who disagreed with them about politics suddenly started cheering for murder. Incredible. You know the names. They’re major losers, by the way. That will be proven out in a short period of time.”
“The same commentators who this week are screaming ‘fascism’ over a canceled late-night TV show, where the anchor had no talent and no ratings last week, were implying that Charlie Kirk deserved what happened to him,” Trump added.
“No side in American politics has a monopoly on disturbed or misguided people, but there’s one part of our political community which believes they have a monopoly on truth, goodness and virtue and concludes they have also a monopoly on power, thought and speech.
Trump concluded his point with a blunt message: “Well, that’s not happening anymore, we’ve turned that corner very quickly.”
Kimmel, however, never celebrated Kirk’s shocking killing at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
In the monologue that got him suspended, the comedian made a passing reference to Kirk as he poked fun at Trump’s reaction to his death.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, referring to the suspect Tyler Robinson.
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he went on, before playing a clip of Trump’s nonchalant response when a reporter asked how he was holding up after Kirk’s death.
MAGAworld erupted in outrage at the bit, with conservative influencer Benny Johnson calling it a “definitionally evil and a malicious lie” that the shooter had links to their base.
This is sick. @jimmykimmel is explicitly stating that MAGA killed Charlie Kirk and is victim blaming the assassination on Charlie’s movement. It’s definitionally evil and a malicious lie. Kimmel must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/PznwF4lgQl
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 17, 2025
Carr appeared on Johnson’s podcast to blast Kimmel.
“What appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person, if that’s what happened here with his conduct, that is really, really sick,” he said. “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Robinson, 22, hails from a family of registered Republicans but was unaffiliated with any political party. Conservatives have accused liberal ideology of radicalizing him, but Justice Department investigators told NBC News that they have so far failed to find a link between the suspect and left-wing groups.
It didn’t take long for Trump to take a victory lap, hailing the suspension of Kimmel’s show as “great news for America.”
Confronted by reporters on Thursday about whether the suspension amounted to an attack on free speech, Trump appeared unbothered.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else,” he said. “He said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
The post Trump Revels in War on Free Speech to Honor Free Speech Warrior appeared first on The Daily Beast.
