


Jimmy Kimmel could not help himself during Monday’s (Oct. 16) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live after news broke that Donald Trump had been issued a partial gag order by the federal judge presiding over the Jan. 6 trial.
Trump reportedly saw this court order as a fundraising opportunity, writing in an email to his supporters that “today really isn’t about gagging me, it’s an attempt to gag the American people.”
But Kimmel wasn’t buying it. “No, it’s you,” Kimmel stated during his monologue. “We’re still able to say pretty much anything we want.”
The partial gag order bars Trump from attacking witnesses, staff, and prosecutors who are involved with the criminal case. It was put into place by Judge Tanya Chutkan the day after the former president shared a “vomit-filled” word cloud on his social media, as Kimmel put it.
“They want to take away my First Amendment rights, and my ability to both campaign and defend myself,” Trump claimed, per screenshots shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “In other words, they want to cheat and interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.” The statement also calls those involved with the trial “hacks and thugs” who “are destroying our country.”

In her decision, Chutkan said the gag order was issued to stop Trump from launching a “pretrial smear campaign” against those involved in the case. “His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify … public servants who are simply doing their job,” she said.
Kimmel did, however, agree with something else Trump said during an appearance on the campaign trail in Iowa on Monday.
Trump claimed he was “willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again.”
Kimmel wasn’t about to argue with that: “Oh, yeah. We understand that,” he remarked. “That actually is the plan: You go to jail, and the country becomes a democracy again. I’m glad we’re finally on the same page.”
Scroll up to watch the entirety of Kimmel’s comments about Trump.