Donald Trump Slams Jimmy Kimmel’s Return and Threatens to ‘Test ABC’

President Donald Trump has responded to the news that Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night show will resume after a brief break on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Trump said he “can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back” in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Sept. 23. “The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!,” Trump wrote. “Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there.”

He continued, “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.”

Trump then wrote, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

On Sept. 17, an ABC spokesperson told PEOPLE that the Disney-owned broadcast network would be pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air “indefinitely,” prompting days of uncertainty about the show’s future.

The apparent punishment followed conservative backlash over remarks that Kimmel made about the death of political organizer Charlie Kirk during a recent opening monologue.

Trump, a longtime critic of Kimmel, celebrated the initial suspension news both on social media and while speaking with reporters.

In a Sept. 17 post on Truth Social, the president praised ABC’s decision to put Jimmy Kimmel Live! on hiatus, writing, “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.”

“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible,” he continued, before taking aim at fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJ,” he added.

During his state visit to the United Kingdom on Sept. 18, Trump referred to Kimmel’s suspension as a firing, though ABC and Disney had not characterized it that way.

“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great man named Charlie Kirk,” Trump, 79, said. “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person, he had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago.”

“You can call that free speech or not,” the president continued. “He was fired for lack of talent.”

Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. He was 31 years old. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder in connection with the murder.

“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, 57, said, suggesting without evidence that Robinson was conservative.

“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added, then cutting to multiple news clips of Donald Trump getting asked about Kirk, but sidetracking the conversation to discuss another topic: his construction of a new White House Ballroom.

“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said of Trump. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”

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Hours before ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension, the network received threats of retaliation from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, over the late-night host’s remarks.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during an appearance on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Nexstar, the largest television station owner in the U.S., then announced that it would refuse to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its stations, followed by Sinclair, the broadcasting company with the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group.

After the show was put on hiatus, Sinclair presented Kimmel with a list of demands to get his show back on their TV stations, which included a direct apology to Kirk’s family and a donation to his conservative political organization, Turning Point USA, which will now be run by his wife, Erika.