Donald Trump appeared to fall asleep multiple times in court during his criminal hush-money trial this week, but Jimmy Kimmel isn’t totally convinced he actually is sleeping. The ABC host guessed on Tuesday night’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that Trump’s lawyers might be intentionally tranquilizing him.
Kimmel noted during his monologue that Trump’s team pushed back on reports of him falling asleep in court, joking that they called it “fake snooze.” But, when it was reported for a second day in a row that Trump had dozed off, Kimmel was struck with a theory.
“He’s very sleepy. Is it possible his lawyers are tranquilizing him to keep the outbursts at a minimum?” he joked.
Naturally, the late night host also poked fun at the outbursts Trump is having outside of court, particularly on social media. Once again, the ex-president complained on Truth Social about being under a gag order, hurling insults at the judge and court.
“Only Donald Trump would complain about being under a gag order while violating that very gag order,” Kimmel mocked.
The host noted that, in most cases, breaking a gag order would result in jail time. But, according to Trump’s lawyer, he’s not overly concerned with jail time. In fact, she argued that if Trump does get sentenced to jail, it’ll make him “like Nelson Mandela.”
“Just like him, like exactly,” Kimmel deadpanned. “He’ll be Nelson Mand-elephant is what he’ll be. Last week he was Abe Lincoln, this week he’s Nelson Mandela. Next week, who knows, maybe Jesus! We’ll see!”
You can watch Jimmy Kimmel’s full monologue in the video above.