Jimmy Kimmel used his short reappearance on the Oscars stage to deliver a pointed critique of both First Lady Melania Trump’s heavily criticized film and CBS’s recent editorial changes, offering some of the night’s sharpest political remarks at the 98th Academy Awards.
The 58-year-old late-night host, who has emceed the Oscars four times, presented the awards for Best Documentary Short Film and Best Documentary Feature at the Dolby Theater on March 15, 2026, and used both moments to lampoon the Trump administration and media organizations he alleges have yielded to presidential influence.
“As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which,” Kimmel told the star-studded audience. “Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
The remark was aimed at CBS’s shift over the past year, including the July 2025 announcement that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” would conclude in May 2026. Paramount, CBS’s parent company, also settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump for $16 million in July 2025 over a “60 Minutes” interview—a deal many legal commentators viewed as unnecessary given the lawsuit’s dubious merits.
Kimmel saved his most scathing lines for the first lady’s documentary “Melania,” which premiered at the Kennedy Center on January 29, 2025, before opening in theaters on January 30, 2025. The Brett Ratner-directed film has been torn apart by critics and holds a 1.4 out of 10 score on IMDB—where the site noted “unusual voting activity”—despite Amazon MGM Studios paying $40 million for distribution rights and spending another $35 million on promotion.
“Fortunately for all of us there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action,” Kimmel said. “And there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes.”
Before revealing the Best Documentary Feature winner, Kimmel added another jab: “Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded on social media, calling Kimmel a “classless hack who is self-projecting his depression and sadness onto others.”
The film follows Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s return to office in January 2025 and has been criticized for prioritizing image and fashion over substance. On Rotten Tomatoes, it set a record for the biggest gap between critics’ scores (11%) and audience ratings (99%) in the site’s history. Kimmel has repeatedly derided the project as a “vanity documentary” on his ABC program “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and questioned its reported $7 million opening weekend receipts.
On his late-night show, Kimmel suggested the reported box office may have been inflated. The documentary opened on over 1,500 screens but finished its theatrical run with only $16 million to $20 million in revenue—a small portion of its $75 million overall cost.
The Sunday appearance continued Kimmel’s extended feud with President Trump, which escalated after Trump’s second inauguration. In September 2025, ABC suspended Kimmel for six days over remarks he made about reactions to the assassination of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk. The suspension followed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s threat of action against ABC affiliates, though the show returned after widespread backlash.
Kimmel’s conflict with Trump had a high-profile moment at the 2024 Oscars when he read a Truth Social post from Trump attacking his hosting and replied onstage: “Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching. Isn’t it past your jail time?”
Conan O’Brien took over as Oscars host starting in 2025 and returned for a second straight year in 2026.
Although President Trump promoted the documentary as “a must-watch” and it premiered at the Kennedy Center, “Melania” lost money in theaters. The film received an “A” CinemaScore from audience polls—a sharp contrast to the critical response, which Metacritic summarized with a 5 out of 100 score, indicating “overwhelming dislike.”
On “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week, the host also mocked the film’s genre label. “Between this and ‘Sinners,’ it’s been a big year for vampire movies,” he quipped.
The Oscars bit revived the familiar intersection of Hollywood and Trump-era politics at a ceremony increasingly used for pointed cultural statements. Kimmel’s segment was met with sustained applause from the Dolby Theater audience, indicating his digs resonated with the entertainment industry’s largely liberal crowd.