President Donald Trump has been unwittingly recruited to lead Jimmy Kimmel's Emmy campaign.
The late-night host, who is currently on a planned summer hiatus, took to Instagram on Aug. 18 to share a video encouraging members of the Television Academy to consider "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" amid voting for the upcoming Emmy Awards.
The video strings together clips of many instances of Trump denigrating Kimmel, calling for him to be fired, and celebrating ABC's decision to temporarily suspend him from the air last year.
"For Your Consideration!" onscreen text says at the end of the montage. Kimmel also captioned the post, "Thank you, Mr President, for your consideration #FYC."
Voting for the 78th Emmy Awards is open until Aug. 26. "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" is nominated
in the category of outstanding variety series, which also includes "The Daily Show," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," and "Saturday Night Live." The show is also nominated for production design, writing, lighting, directing and technical direction and camerawork.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" has aired on ABC since 2003 but has never won the Emmy for best variety or talk series. The Emmy for best talk series most recently went to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," which is nominated for its final time this year after it was controversially canceled by CBS in 2025. Kimmel himself supported "The Late Show" winning the Emmy that year, even putting up a billboard that read, "I'm voting for Stephen."
Kimmel's show also endured its fair share of controversy over the past year after ABC temporarily suspended the comic from the air in September 2025 over comments he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. Trump celebrated Kimmel's suspension at the time and later slammed ABC's decision to bring him back on the air.
In April, Trump again called for Kimmel to lose his job, saying ABC "better" fire him "soon," after the comedian jokingly called first lady Melania Trump an "expectant widow," days before a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. ABC took no action against Kimmel over the remark, which the comedian defended as a "very light roast joke" and not, "by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination."
"The Late Show" recently promoted its own Emmys campaign on its YouTube channel: The first video uploaded there since the show ended in May was titled "For Your Emmy Consideration: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," featuring a montage of best moments from the final season. "I don’t want CBS earning an Emmy for the show. But I want Colbert and the crew to win an Emmy," one fan commented on the video.
The 2026 Emmy Awards will air on NBC on Sept. 14, hosted by Mariska Hargitay.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Kimmel turns Donald Trump attacks into Emmy campaign
