Ahead of arriving in criminal court in Manhattan for the third straight day, former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to blast his longtime foe Jimmy Kimmel — but in the roundabout rant accidentally mistook him for Al Pacino.
Pacino presented the Best Picture Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, which Kimmel hosted, which appeared to be what tripped Trump up.
On his personal Truth Social account, Trump inexplicably went on another rant against the late night host on Wednesday morning his duty hosting the annual film awards March 10.
Prior to arriving in court in Downtown Manhattan, Trump wrote, “Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his horrendous performance and big ratings drop as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night, right before he stumbled through announcing the biggest award of all, ‘Picture of the Year.’”
Confusing Kimmel and Pacino, Trump continued, “It was a CLASSIC CHOKE, one of the biggest ever in show business, and to top it off, he forgot to say the famous and mandatory line, ‘AND THE WINNER IS.’ Instead he stammered around as he opened the envelope.
“Supposedly his wife, and even management, begged him not to do it, ‘DON’T READ HIS TRUTH, JIMMY, PLEASE DON’T DO THIS,’ they said. He was made to look like a FOOL, which he is, and at the same time go down in Television History as the WORST HOST EVER OF THE ONCE VAUNTED ACADEMY AWARDS!” Trump’s post concluded.
The missive, viewed by 16,500 users by time of publication on Tuesday, referred to critically acclaimed Kimmel’s hosting duties at The Oscars, which actually hit a four-year viewership high with 19.5 million viewers.
Kimmel even trolled Trump by reading the former president’s review towards the end of the show. Reading from his phone, Kimmel said, “I just got a review … ‘Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars … Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos.’”
Kimmel concluded, “Well thank you, President Trump, thank you for watching. I’m surprised you’re still up, isn’t it past your jail time?”
But on Wednesday’s Truth Social post, Trump confused Kimmel with the presenter of the final award, when it was actually Pacino who came forward with an awkward delivery of the Best Picture Oscar. He chose to not name the nominees before declaring “Oppenheimer” the winner.
“Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture,” Pacino said in the telecast. “I have to go to the envelope for that, and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see: ‘Oppenheimer.’”
The actor later explained that clips of all the Best Picture nominees had played throughout the ceremony, so producers had said he did not need revisit them in his introduction.
Trump, meanwhile, may have been more incensed that the biggest news to come from Day 1 of his criminal hush money trial on Monday was that he apparently fell asleep in the courtroom.
According to multiple reporters in the room, Trump appears to have snoozed with his mouth agape at one point, stayed out for a short length of time and then snapped awake.
Of course, Kimmel thought this was hilarious. On “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the host noted on Monday night how Trump’s longstanding nickname for President Joe Biden has been “Sleepy Joe,” adding that nodding off in court makes Trump “Dozo the Clown.”
Monday was the start of jury selection in the business fraud criminal trial over the money Trump allegedly paid to keep his affair with former porn actress Stormy Daniels a secret in 2016.
The trial is expected to last six weeks, or “until the courtroom sketch artist runs out of orange, whichever comes first,” Kimmel later joked, before talking about how forcing the embattled politician to attend the trial four days a week “is going to drive him insane.”
“It’s like making an 8-year-old go to six weeks of church,” he said.
On Tuesday night, Kimmel continued hammering Trump. “He’s very sleepy. Is it possible his lawyers are tranquilizing him to keep the outbursts at a minimum?” he joked.
A spokesperson for Trump didn’t immediately get back to TheWrap.
