Claim:
Authentic photographs show talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel delivering the final monologue on his show, in which he said U.S. President Donald Trump was unfit for office and “killed free speech.”
Rating:
In December 2025, rumors circulated online that talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel had delivered his “final monologue” on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in which he heavily criticized U.S. President Donald Trump. Snopes readers searched for evidence that Kimmel delivered such a monologue on our website.
One Facebook post from user Global Political Insights shared an alleged photograph of Kimmel holding a sign that stated, “Donald Trump is not fitness to be president. Do you agree? Be honest with me.” The post spread with the caption:
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel didn’t mince words during Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, delivering a blistering six-minute monologue declaring President Donald Trump “completely unfit” to hold the office, citing his history of dishonesty, attacks on democracy, and what Kimmel called “a brain that’s more scrambled than RFK Jr.’s after the worm incident.”
“Folks, we’re one year into Trump 2.0, and it’s clearer than ever: This guy is unfit to be president. Unfit! He’s unfit to run a lemonade stand, let alone the United States,” Kimmel opened, drawing cheers and laughter from the studio audience. Referencing Trump’s past actions, Kimmel hammered on the January 6 Capitol riot, saying, “He incited an insurrection, tried to steal an election, and now he’s back in the White House like nothing happened. If that doesn’t scream ‘unfit,’ I don’t know what does.”
(Facebook user “Global Political Insights”)
Another Facebook post from the same page showed Kimmel with a sign reading, “This may be the last time I appear on television because I messed with Donald Trump. Do you want to see me again? Be honest with me.” The post spread with a caption that began:
KIMMEL JUST DELIVERED WHAT MAY BE HIS FINAL MONOLOGUE AT 11:59 P.M.: “THIS MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME YOU EVER SEE ME ON TELEVISION – I PISSED OFF DONALD TRUMP AND HE DOESN’T FORGIVE”
Jimmy Kimmel walked out in a plain black T-shirt, no tie, no smile, no Guillermo, no band.
He stood under a single spotlight and spoke straight to camera, voice calm but shaking at the edges:
“Tonight could be my last show.
Not because I’m tired.
Because I finally went too far for Donald Trump.
I have proof he’s planning things so dark I can’t even say them out loud yet.
I told him on the phone tonight I was going public.
He laughed and said:
‘Enjoy your last episode, Jimmy. Tomorrow ABC belongs to me.’
(Facebook user “Global Political Insights”)
Some users commenting on the posts seemed to believe that Kimmel had given a scathing monologue critical of Trump and his show was getting canceled. However, the above images are AI-generated and the posts were not a factual recounting of real-life events. As such, we rate this claim as fake.
GPTZero, a tool for detecting artificial intelligence in text, rated the captions for the above posts as 99% and 100% likelihood of being AI-generated respectively. The above images also are AI-generated. Snopes ran the images through AI-detection tools AI or Not, SightEngine and Hive Moderation. All the tools determined a very high likelihood that the images were AI-generated. (Research shows AI-detection software is imperfect, and readers should consider the tools’ results with skepticism.)
Even without AI-detection tools, the images are clearly fake, as evidenced by Kimmel’s artificially overemphasized features. The Facebook page that shared the above images features other posts showing multiple images of Kimmel standing in the same position, with the same expression, holding different signs.
A search of Kimmel’s recent programming showed no evidence that he made such a statement or even indicated that his show was being pulled off the air. In fact, in his monologue from Dec. 4, he jokingly thanked Trump for reportedly helping make him the third-most-trending person on Google for 2025:
And I just want to say, I couldn’t have done this — none of this would ever have happened without the support of loyal viewers like President Trump, who has done so much this year to raise awareness of our show.
Kimmel’s show was temporarily suspended in September 2025 following criticism of his comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The suspension resulted in widespread condemnation and the show was eventually reinstated. If Kimmel had announced in December that his show was being pulled off the air for good, it would have been covered even more widely by news media around the U.S. and the world.
Since returning to air, Kimmel has not shied away from poking fun at Trump. He has consistently joked about the administration, at one point calling Trump a “bloated, useless entity that delivered no peace.”
The posts spread after Trump criticized Kimmel at a White House event on Dec. 7. The event was held before the Kennedy Center Honors, which Trump hosted. Trump said: “I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Posts such as these can be characterized as “AI slop,” or just “slop” — low-quality content that’s easy to create thanks to artificial intelligence tools.
Snopes recently fact-checked a video purportedly showing a raccoon breaking into a liquor store and passing out drunk. While such an incident did occur, the video in question was AI slop.
Snopes has a page containing tips and tricks for identifying AI-generated images, but with the speed at which AI tools have advanced, methods of discerning what’s fake or real also have changed. For further reading, Snopes wrote a detailed explanation of AI slop.
Sources
Bendix, Trish. “Jimmy Kimmel Thanks Trump for Google Superstardom in 2025.” The New York Times, 5 Dec. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/arts/television/jimmy-kimmel-trump-2025-google.html. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Deng, Rae. “Fake Raccoon Liquor Store Break-in Video Spreads Online. Watch the Real Footage.” Snopes, 5 Dec. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/drunk-raccoon-liquor-store/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Goh, Amanda. “Here’s What Jimmy Kimmel Said about Charlie Kirk on His Late-Night Show That Got Him Pulled off the Air.” Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/what-jimmy-kimmel-said-late-night-show-charlie-kirk-2025-9. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Horton, Adrian. “Hundreds of Hollywood Stars Sign Open Letter Condemning Kimmel Suspension.” The Guardian, 23 Sept. 2025. Television & Radio. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/22/hollywood-aclu-letter-jimmy-kimmel-suspension. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Izzo, Jack. “Snopestionary: AI Slop, Explained.” Snopes, 22 Aug. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//articles/470975/ai-slop-media-literacy/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live.” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6vGFO9ty8v5KZJXQxdhaw. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Kar, Sujita Kumar, et al. “How Sensitive Are the Free AI-Detector Tools in Detecting AI-Generated Texts? A Comparison of Popular AI-Detector Tools.” Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, vol. 47, no. 3, May 2025, pp. 275–78. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176241247934. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Lee, Jessica, and David  Emery. “4 Tips for Spotting AI-Generated Pics.” Snopes, 16 Apr. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//articles/464595/artificial-intelligence-media-literacy/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
Nordyke, Kimberly. “Trump on Hosting Kennedy Center Honors: ‘If I Can’t Beat Out Jimmy Kimmel in Terms of Talent, Then I Don’t Think I Should Be President.'” The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Dec. 2025, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/trump-jimmy-kimmel-joke-host-kennedy-center-honors-president-1236444405/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
“Trump Keeps Claiming He Has a Health Care Plan, Flubs Congo President’s Name & Takes Another Nap .” YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live, 5 Dec. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWtWR4xL5w. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
“Trump Lashes Out in Unhinged Thanksgiving Message & Hegseth in Hot Water Over Possible War Crimes .” YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live, 2 Dec. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDcuUKTe9gE. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
“Trump’s Cabinet Meeting Naps Get Republican Spin & Hegseth’s ‘War Crimes’ Problem Gets Worse .” YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live, 4 Dec. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzXG8N0h1sM. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
