{"id":13019,"date":"2026-05-20T19:21:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/20\/jimmy-kimmel-on-trumps-irs-settlement-most-brazenly-corrupt-move-by-any-president-ever-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:21:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:21:42","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-on-trumps-irs-settlement-most-brazenly-corrupt-move-by-any-president-ever-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/20\/jimmy-kimmel-on-trumps-irs-settlement-most-brazenly-corrupt-move-by-any-president-ever-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel on Trump\u2019s IRS settlement: \u2018Most brazenly corrupt move by any president ever\u2019 &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"maincontent\">\n<p>Late-night hosts discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s controversial $1.76bn settlement and the latest on his taxpayer-funded ballroom.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jimmy-kimmel\"><strong>Jimmy Kimmel<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"ae9c5f51-e4a1-41f8-b8c1-25f317cb4b5b\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.VideoYoutubeBlockElement\">\n<div data-component=\"youtube-embed\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/DaMXK08sWRM?wmode=opaque&#038;feature=oembed\" title=\"Trump Makes His Most Brazenly Corrupt Move Ever, Blabs About Ballroom &#038; Backs Off Iran Deadline\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/jimmy-kimmel\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!, the host said that there was \u201cjust so much lying and stealing and grifting and cheating in the news today\u201d and Trump was focusing on the \u201cmost important issue that we face as Americans\u201d \u2013 his $1bn ballroom.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"3128bfb8-0c25-47bf-b7b6-1f62f7ff205e\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{\"richLinkIndex\":4,\"element\":{\"_type\":\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\",\"prefix\":\"Related: \",\"text\":\"Jon Stewart on Trump\u2019s visit with Xi: \u2018All you came back with was his Instagram?\u2019\",\"elementId\":\"3128bfb8-0c25-47bf-b7b6-1f62f7ff205e\",\"role\":\"richLink\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2026\/may\/19\/jon-stewart-trump-china-visit\"},\"ajaxUrl\":\"https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk\",\"format\":{\"design\":10,\"display\":0,\"theme\":3}}\"><\/gu-island><\/figure>\n<p>After the host shared footage of the president\u2019s incoherent presentation of plans, he said: \u201cI\u2019m starting to get the idea Blob the Builder doesn\u2019t know much about construction either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kimmel added, \u201cCan you imagine the Iranians watching that this morning?\u201d as Trump was minutes away from another of his latest purported deadlines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he wasn\u2019t so dumb it might be diabolical \u2013 but it isn\u2019t, he\u2019s dumb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump later backed down and Kimmel noticed that this often takes place on a Tuesday. \u201cI think it\u2019s because he has more free time on the weekends to make threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>While various polls have shown that Americans are consistently against the war with Iran, Trump has said that he both acknowledges and rejects this. Kimmel said it was \u201call you need to know about this man\u201d and it was \u201cabout as stupid a sentence as I\u2019ve ever heard in my life\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He concluded: \u201cTrump has no exit strategy for Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then moved on to what he called the \u201cmost brazenly corrupt move by any president ever\u201d. In January, Trump sued his own government for $10bn because someone at the IRS leaked tax returns he had been \u201cpromising to show us for the last 11 years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmel called it the \u201clegal equivalent of sitting on your hand until it goes to sleep so it feels like a stranger is touching you when you masturbate\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This week saw \u201cboth sides which were the same side\u201d come to a settlement which amounted to an apology and a fund worth $1.76bn that Trump can use to pay \u201canyone for anything\u201d including those were involved in the January 6 riot.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmel jokingly referred to those who stormed the Capitol as \u201cthe great patriots\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This week also saw Donald Trump Jr and his bride-to-be decide against getting married at the White House over fears about the optics. \u201cSomebody marrying Donald Trump Jr is worried about the optics?\u201d Kimmel asked.<\/p>\n<p>Instead they will be married on a small private island in the Caribbean. \u201cHis dad used to have a buddy who owned a small private island in the Caribbean,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n<p>This week we also learned that Trump benefited to the number of about $740m from various trades which were the results of larger decisions he made as president. Kimmel called it \u201ca smash-and-grab\u201d and said: \u201cYou just can\u2019t keep track of what they\u2019re taking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also took aim at Elon Musk, who has been attacking Christopher Nolan over the choice to cast Oscar winner Lupita Nyong\u2019o to play Helen of Troy in The Odyssey.<\/p>\n<p>Musk and other rightwingers have claimed Nolan is trying to rewrite history, yet Kimmel reminded them that it\u2019s based on a mythical poem, something that is as fake as \u201cSanta Claus or election fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"stephen-colbert\"><strong>Stephen Colbert<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"98b6bad5-45ad-4f56-a151-befeffb68637\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.VideoYoutubeBlockElement\">\n<div data-component=\"youtube-embed\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/GMYvgmjVAqI?wmode=opaque&#038;feature=oembed\" title=\"Insurrectionists Hit The Jackpot | A Middle East Chill Pill | How The Ballroom Ties Together\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In The Late Show\u2019s final week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/stephen-colbert\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Stephen Colbert<\/a> also spoke about Trump\u2019s settlement, which was agreed upon without \u201cany congressional or court approval\u201d and saw him giving himself \u201ca taxpayer-fueled slush fund\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Colbert also called out the situation as being \u201chim on both sides\u201d and noted that \u201cone group of lucky slushies\u201d was those involved with the January 6 riot.<\/p>\n<p>But if viewers are worried they will get their hands on it, \u201cthey won\u2019t because Trump\u2019s gonna steal it all\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the five-person commission will just be five Marco Rubios.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurely this can\u2019t get more corrupt?\u201d he asked before answering that the settlement also precludes any investigation into fraud or misuse of the funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just an all-you-can-fraud buffet,\u201d Colbert said before calling it \u201can unprecedented level of grift\u201d and joking that Trump \u201cgave himself a get-out-of-jail-free card and a way better one than Jeffrey Epstein got\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also called out Trump for posting more \u201cpowerful AI slop\u201d including a baffling picture of him pressing a big red button that blows up Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The president called off another attack on Iran this week and Colbert said that \u201cthese threats are getting less and less effective the more he keeps dragging them out\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also spoke about Trump addressing the press next to the \u201cpile of rubble where the East Wing used to be to talk ballroom\u201d, and noted how hard it was to hear anything because of the construction.<\/p>\n<p>Colbert said that Trump was \u201cjust gonna keep finding louder and louder places to answer questions\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump\u2019s controversial $1.76bn settlement and the latest on his taxpayer-funded ballroom. Jimmy Kimmel On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said that there was \u201cjust so much lying and stealing and grifting and cheating in the news today\u201d and Trump was focusing on the \u201cmost important issue that we face as Americans\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}