Over the last several weeks, we’ve seen a bunch of big names sit behind the desk on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The ABC late night series drew some backlash after stars like Tiffany Haddish and Jelly Roll made political jokes, though this was in keeping with Kimmel’s own tone. It’s the latter, though, who is still dealing with pushback as the late night host prepares to sit behind his own desk once more.
Jimmy Kimmel Is Back On Live! This Week
Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air Tuesday, September 8th. Normally a host’s break and return to the air isn’t a huge story, but this year is a different sort of year. First, Kimmel’s been off ABC since June 18th. He's back after months of tumult that saw him get suspended and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert canceled. He's also been off the air for nearly three months. Not quite, but nearly. That’s a long time.
Secondly, while sometimes shows go into reruns while a host takes a summer break, this year ABC (mostly) tried something different. A slew of guest hosts stepped in and brought audiences new interview content over the last few months. Rosie O’Donnell guest hosted, despite formerly butting heads with Kimmel. Tiffany Haddish was on. So was Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, and finally, Jelly Roll.
The Latest In The Jelly Roll Kimmel Saga
Up until a couple of weeks ago, the “piping hot tea” surrounding Jelly Roll’s divorce is what was garnering the most headlines for the singer. Well, if he wanted people to be distracted from his celebrity divorce, he achieved it.When the latter hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live, he took a few cracks at President Donald Trump.
During several of Jelly Roll’s episodes, he made some quips about President Trump, including a few weight-related jokes. For example, one joke mentioned the singer had “lost an entire Donald Trump” before he later quipped, “Mr. President, from one fat pig to another, take it from me that physical fitness is very important.” Jokes like these made headlines, and later monologues from the singer also addressed these headlines he’d been seeing online.
To note, this wasn’t the first time this has happened during Kimmel’s absence. Tiffany Haddish also threw out a joke about the current administration, and the White House responded. However, Jelly Roll has always prided himself on straddling the middle when it comes to politics, and some individuals have taken this as shots fired.
This week, a Blue Lives Matter post aggressively disinvited Jelly Roll to an upcoming event.
We're DONE. You're FIRED. On April 26, 2026, we made the mistake of sending a formal invitation to country artist Jelly Roll Roll to perform at this year's Second Annual Big Blue Bash at Mar-A-Lago, the home of President Trump. The event is a fundraiser for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that takes care of the families of wounded and fallen officers.
In a lengthy post on, X the event organizer said he is a Christian father who also, like Jelly Roll, used to be overweight, and knows how it “sucks to be the brunt of people’s jokes.” Because of this, the poster said he was not pleased with the way Jelly Roll handled his late night tenure, and made fat jokes involving the President of the United States.
And what I saw last week with this self-absorbed "artist" bashing President Trump and Conservatives was not a man who walks in the footsteps of Jesus Christ - it was a man desperately seeking attention and relevancy from the very Godless crowd that has categorically rejected his preaching. … The man has lost his way. I don't hate him. I actually genuinely pity him.
It’s unclear if Jelly Roll would have actually even attended this event, but for his part, he’d actually addressed why he took that bent on late night more than a week ago on the air. Then, on August 28th, he also wrote:
My daddy was a Democrat. His brother was a Republican. Best friends till the day he died. Before he passed he told me: ‘We agreed about hundreds of things. We weren’t gonna let the few things we disagreed on define our relationship.’ A handshake ain’t an endorsement. A joke ain’t a political stance. And loving your neighbor doesn’t come with an asterisk. Tomorrow I’m gonna try a little harder to love my neighbor. Hope y’all do the same. 🖤
Jelly Roll’s tenure is done now, and Kimmel will be back tonight with Andrew Garfield and Joey King (hopefully method dressing for Practical Magic 2!) as guests. Regardless, the true ABC late night host has been making jokes similar to these for months now, and even took some major Trump digs when the Knicks won just a few days before his hiatus. We’ll have to wait and see if the administration is in the line of fire tonight, but if you’re putting money down, I don’t think you’d be making a bad bet.
