Getty Images
- Then-President Donald Trump urged White House staff to complain to Disney about Jimmy Kimmel.
- In 2018, Trump's aides called a top Disney executive on at least two occasions, per Rolling Stone.
- Trump was frustrated with Kimmel's "very dishonest" monologues and jokes, former officials said.
Then-President Donald Trump was once so annoyed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was making fun of him that he ordered White House staff to call a senior Disney executive to try to make it stop.
Rolling Stone was the first to report that Trump directed aides in 2018 to call the late Disney lobbyist Richard Bates on at least two occasions because of his frustrations over gags on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
According to several unnamed Trump administration officials, who spoke to Rolling Stone on the condition of anonymity, Trump phoned Disney to "demand action" from the company, which owns ABC, focusing his complaints on Kimmel's "monologues and jabs" about him.
Trump felt that Kimmel had been "very dishonest" and had been saying things that he would have "once sued over," according to a senior unnamed official, per Rolling Stone.
"Nobody thought it was going to change anything but DJT was focused on it so we had to do something," another source told Rolling Stone. "It was doing something, mostly, to say to [Trump], 'Hey, we did this.'"
According to the news outlet, word quickly spread in Washington, DC, about the failed attempt to censure Kimmel, with several Trump officials saying they had heard about it from their contacts at Disney.
Trump's post-presidency office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The effort to rein in Kimmel ultimately failed. He continued mocking Trump throughout his presidency, with his monologues still often targeting Trump.
Last week, Kimmel referred to Trump as "a train wreck talking about a train wreck" during an opening speech about the former president's recent visit to East Palestine, Ohio.
Another late-night host was also the subject of Trump's ire while he was president.
Stephen Colbert once made a joke about Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and oral sex, which prompted a Federal Communications Commission investigation. Trump responded to the joke by calling Colbert a"no-talent" who says "nothing funny" and uses "filthy language."
Ultimately, the FCC took no action.