Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening monologue on September 16, 2025, that the "MAGA gang" was "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." He criticized political supporters of President Trump for allegedly attempting to frame the murderer of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as a leftist extremist rather than part of the MAGA movement. Kimmel also mocked President Trump's reaction to Kirk's death, commenting on how the president seemed to grieve in an immature way by focusing on White House renovations rather than the tragedy itself. He said, “This is how a four-year-old grieves a goldfish.” Kimmel's comments sparked a major backlash, leading ABC to pull his late-night show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," off the air indefinitely. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission criticized Kimmel's remarks as "truly sick," and Nexstar, a major ABC affiliate broadcaster, also expressed strong disapproval and replaced Kimmel's show with other programming. The controversy centered primarily on his comments linking the alleged killer to the MAGA movement and on mocking the president's response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
