Jimmy Kimmel has fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump after the latter predicted Kimmel would be the next late-night host to face cancellation, following the announced end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. CBS recently confirmed that Colbert’s show would wrap after the 2025–26 season, citing budget constraints amid a shrinking late-night economy. Trump, however, celebrated the development as a personal victory and used it as an opportunity to target his usual media critics.

Taking to Truth Social, Trump posted, “The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone.” He also called the late-night trio — Kimmel, Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon — “no-talent” hosts who had “ruined what used to be great television.”

Trump praised Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld as superior to all of them and took a direct swipe at Fallon, calling him “the moron on NBC.”

Kimmel responded on Instagram just hours later. “I’m hearing you’re next. Or maybe it’s just another wonderful secret,” he wrote, referencing a recent Wall Street Journal exposé about a 2003 birthday letter Trump wrote to Jeffrey Epstein. That letter, described in detail by the WSJ, was reportedly typed within the outline of a naked woman and signed “Donald” beneath the waist. It ended with the phrase, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Kimmel’s comeback ties Trump’s late-night feud to the wider controversy surrounding his past relationship with Epstein. It comes amid growing scrutiny after WSJ also reported that former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump his name was referenced in the Epstein files — records the Justice Department recently declined to release.

While CBS has denied any political motive in ending Colbert’s show, the announcement came shortly after Colbert criticised Paramount for settling a lawsuit with Trump over a 60 Minutes segment, calling the $16 million payout a “fat bribe.”