Jimmy Kimmel joked about Donald Trump’s “insurrection depression” and suggested that his son was actually behind any negative feelings following the Capitol riots.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, Mr Kimmel referenced the recent claim that Mr Trump was “depressed” to the point that he stopped eating following the attacks on January 6.
Former US representative Liz Cheney made the claim in her upcoming book Oath and Honor, saying that is what she had been told by House colleague Kevin McCarthy after he visited Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago three weeks after the insurrection.
Mr Kimmel was beyond amused by the account of the man Ms Cheney called “Orange Jesus” - joking that Mr Trump went through his own version of the stages of grief after his loss to President Joe Biden.
“First there was denial, then anger, depression, anger, denial, anger, denial, denial, denial, anger, anger, anger, denial and finally insurrection,” Mr Kimmel said.
Kimmel joked that “insurrection” was a natural part of Trump’s post-election grieving process— (Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube)
He then repeated the alleged McCarthy quote from Ms Cheney’s book: “They’re really worried. Trump’s not eating, so they asked me to come see him.”
“Well, now, that I don’t believe,” the comedian chuckled in response.
Instead, he floated the idea that Mr Trump was down for another reason - his son’s birthday.
“January 6 is also the day Eric [Trump] was born. Could be why he wasn’t eating?” he joked.
Mr Trump’s adult son was indeed born on 6 January 1984, and carries the responsibility of being a trustee and the executive vice president of his father’s business, the Trump Organization.
Yet in the past, Mr Kimmel has quipped about Eric Trump trying hard to please his father, yet receiving little praise back from him.
When Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr showed up for their courtroom testimony in the civil fraud trial earlier this month, the former president was not there to watch his offspring.
“Their father was not there to cheer his sons on. Donald Trump not showing up to watch his kids testify in a fraud trial is the Trump family version of not showing up for their school play,” Mr Kimmel said on a previous episode.
Mr Kimmel joked in another show that “Trump will claim he’s never met either one of them” after both his sons had testified.
