One day after dragging Fox News blowhard—and frozen dinner heir—Tucker Carlson for singing Putin’s praises the day before Putin ordered a Russian invasion of Ukraine, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show on Thursday and set his sights on another admirer of the diminutive dictator, Donald J. Trump.
“You know, it’s hard to do a comedy show when there’s a war going on, but we are here while more than 6,000 miles away, women and children are fleeing Ukraine,” Kimmel began his monologue. “Men, age 18-60, are required to stay and fight and Russian forces continue their unprovoked attack—an attack that has been received here, in the United States, like… I don’t remember anything like this, in that some of us seem OK with it. You know, typically, we would band together in a situation like this—we would be united—but that was before The Great Divider chopped us in half.”
He was, of course, referring to Trump. On Tuesday, the day before the Russian invasion, Trump called in to a conservative talk radio show co-hosted by an unhinged sports pundit to call Putin’s decision to declare large parts of the Ukraine independent as his troops advanced on the country a “genius” and “smart” move.
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He didn’t change his tune after the invasion had commenced, either.
“While Vladimir Putin is being condemned by leaders and ambassadors from every democratic country around the world, Donald Trump, our former president, was complimenting him, and of course himself,” explained Kimmel. “While bombs were falling on a country that did nothing to provoke an invasion, Trump called in to Fox to say, ‘Never would’ve happened if I was in charge.’”
Yes, Trump called in to Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show—a xenophobic hatefest that’s been running Putin apologia for months—to say of the Russian military offensive, “This would not have happened under my administration… In fact, some people were saying, why didn’t this take place over the last four years, during our administration? And it didn’t for a very good reason, and I’ll explain that to you someday.”
“It takes a special kind of a son of a bitch to see innocent people fleeing their homes and think, ‘How can I make this about me?’ but nobody does that better than Donald Trump,” said Kimmel.
“And it all happened because of a rigged election,” Trump argued to Ingraham, bringing it back to himself and his 2020 election lies.
Then, at Mar-a-Lago last night, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine was underway, Trump popped into a dinner to sing Putin’s praises.
“He’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart,” said Trump. “He’s taking over a country—really, a vast, vast location. A great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.” He also, in addition to speaking of the invasion of an innocent country like it was some fun real estate deal, reiterated that it wouldn’t be happening if he were still president.
“This idea that Trump would somehow be able to wrangle Vladimir Putin is very rich, let’s just say that,” claimed Kimmel.
He then threw to a clip of 2018 when Trump said, “If Vladimir Putin were sitting next to me at a table instead of one of the other [leaders]… I could say, ‘Will you do me a favor? Would you get out of Syria? Would you get out of the Ukraine? Get out of Ukraine, you shouldn’t be there.’”
“That’s a great idea! Joe Biden should just say, ‘Could you just do me a favor? Would you just get out?’ Why didn’t anyone think about that? Just make a perfect call and it would all be over,” cracked Kimmel. “Can you imagine if any other president behaved this way? This would be like if during World War II, Hoover came out and said, ‘Thatta boy, Adolf! Sweet mustache! I love what you’re doing there!’”
