Jimmy Kimmel is once again proving that no event is too harmless, too masculine, or too obviously designed for normal Americans to enjoy without being filtered through his endless obsession with President Trump.
During Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host mocked President Trump’s White House UFC birthday event, calling it “like a mini January 6th” and sneering at the fighters gathered for the event.
“No one should be wearing shorts at the White House,” Kimmel said, before claiming the White House would now smell like “jockstraps and Axe body spray.”
That line might have landed better if Kimmel had shown anything resembling consistency when Joe Biden’s White House hosted a Pride Month event on the South Lawn in 2023 that ended with multiple attendees going topless in public.
According to the Associated Press, gender activist Rose Montoya was banned from future White House events after posting a video along with two others going topless during Biden’s Pride celebration on the South Lawn.
So when Kimmel says “no one should be wearing shorts at the White House,” the obvious follow-up is this: where was the late-night moral panic when people were wearing far less than shorts at Biden’s White House?
Kimmel’s Outrage Only Runs One Way
Kimmel’s complaint wasn’t really about decorum. It was about Trump. Again.
If the issue were truly preserving the dignity of the White House, then a public Pride event that resulted in topless attendees on the South Lawn would seem like an obvious target for late-night mockery. Instead, Kimmel reserved his outrage for athletes participating in a controlled sporting event.
Jimmy Kimmel jokes that Melania Trump has a “glow like an expected widow” on his show days before an attempt was made on President Trump’s life – YouTube, SkyNews Australia
Shorts at a UFC event are apparently a national disgrace. Public toplessness at a Biden Pride event was treated as a passing embarrassment, if it was treated as anything at all by the same Hollywood class.
This is the modern late-night formula. If Trump does it, it is the end of civilization. If anyone else does it, the story disappears.
The White House Has A Long History Of Sports And Spectacle
Kimmel also acted as if a combat sports event at the White House is some unprecedented desecration of sacred ground. But the White House has never been some sterile museum untouched by athletics, public events, or spectacle.
Theodore Roosevelt boxed, wrestled, and practiced jiu-jitsu while president. White House Historical Association records show Roosevelt even invited jiu-jitsu instructor Yamashita Yoshiaki to demonstrate the martial art in the East Room around 1905.
A screenshot from UFC 313 on ESPN+ – YouTube, ESPN MMA
Roosevelt wasn’t merely watching combat sports. He participated in them.
The White House grounds have also hosted tennis courts, a putting green, horseshoes, swimming pools, and bowling. George W. Bush launched Tee Ball on the South Lawn in 2001, turning the space into a youth baseball venue. The South Lawn has also long hosted the Easter Egg Roll, one of the oldest annual public events in White House history.
So the notion that the White House lawn must never host sporting events is simply false. The complaint is selective. The outrage is manufactured.
A UFC Event Is Only Scandalous Because Trump Did It
The real issue is that Trump staged something that appealed to a massive audience late-night hosts don’t understand and clearly don’t respect. And, really, who can blame them? Its been a very long time since anything resembling a massive audience tuned in for any modern late night program.
UFC is one of the most popular sports brands in the country. It draws young men, working-class fans, military families, and people who don’t need their entertainment pre-approved by coastal celebrities. That alone makes it a target for Kimmel’s brand of sneering “comedy.”
Jimmy Kimmel shakes hands with Joe Biden – YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Rather than seeing the event as patriotic spectacle or an attempt to bring a different kind of American entertainment to the White House, Kimmel reduced it to body odor jokes and January 6 references.
Kimmel has built an entire late-night identity around reacting to Trump with the same tired routine. The names change. The headlines change. The punchline never does.
Trump bad. Trump vulgar. Trump dangerous. Trump embarrassing. Repeat until applause sign lights up and audience claps.
Kimmel’s Trump Obsession Is The Joke
The funniest part of all is that Kimmel seems completely unaware of how predictable he has become.
President Trump hosts a UFC event, and Kimmel sees a problem. Fighters wear standard athletic gear, and Kimmel sees a crisis of White House dignity. But when Biden’s South Lawn Pride event ended with topless attendees being banned by the White House itself, the late-night outrage machine didn’t treat that as the collapse of decorum.
That’s why Kimmel’s latest monologue says more about him than it does about the UFC event.
Jimmy Kimmel crying again in his return monologue on ABC – YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live
The White House has seen boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, tee ball, tennis, horseshoes, concerts, ceremonies, and public festivals. A UFC event may be flashier than most, but it is hardly the cultural emergency Kimmel wants his audience to believe it is.
What really bothers him isn’t the shorts. It’s that President Trump hosted something that millions of Americans might actually enjoy.
How do you feel about Jimmy Kimmel and his latest meltdown over the White House UFC event? Sound off and let us know!
