Jimmy Kimmel delivered a politically charged alternative Christmas message on the U.K.’s Channel 4 on Thursday, using the platform to rail against Donald Trump and warn that “tyranny is booming” in America under a president who “thinks he is our king.”
“My country’s president would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored,” Kimmel said during the address. “The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for. And all of a sudden, we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was swiftly brought back on the air after being briefly suspended by ABC parent company Disney in September. The show was pulled following comments Kimmel made in a monologue about the political firestorm that followed the shocking murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk over the summer.
The longtime late-night host was invited by Channel 4 to speak as part of its annual Alternative Christmas Message, now in its 32nd year. Since 1993, figures from across politics and popular culture — including former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and whistleblower Edward Snowden — have addressed the British public in the broadcast, which serves as a counterpoint to the monarch’s traditional Christmas Day address.
Kimmel “has found himself on the frontline of America’s battle over free speech,” a Channel 4 spokesperson said in a statement explaining the broadcaster’s choice this year.
Thursday’s address may further inflame an ongoing war of words between the president and the comic, which escalated after the Oscars in March 2024, when host Kimmel mocked Trump onstage over a social media post criticizing his performance as ceremony host.
Trump, then campaigning in what would become a successful 2024 reelection bid, responded by doubling down on his attacks. The feud continued as Kimmel mocked Trump’s policies, actions, and public statements, while the candidate — and later president — fired back online. It ultimately culminated in Kimmel’s suspension, which was reversed quickly following a public outcry over Disney’s decision, a sequence of events Kimmel recounted in his address.
“Millions and millions of people stood up and said, ‘No, this is not acceptable,’” Kimmel said. “People who never watched my show, people who were on record saying they hate my show, spoke out. They marched. They did this all to support the right to freedom of expression. And because so many people spoke out, we came back. Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the president lost, and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on Earth a right and richly deserved bollocking.”
On Dec. 19, the host grew tearful during his monologue at the top of his last show of 2025, reflecting on what he acknowledged was a difficult year.
“This has been a strange year. It’s been a hard year,” Kimmel said. “We’ve had some lows. We’ve had some highs. For me, maybe more than any year of my life.”
Read the full text of Kimmel’s Channel 4 address below.
Hi I’m Jimmy Kimmel,
I have no idea if you know who I am, but I was asked to deliver this year’s Alternative Christmas Message (which I’ve heard is a big deal) so I hope you do, but if not I host what you call a chat show (we call it a talk show) in what you call the colonies, I think? I honestly have no idea what’s going on over there.
do know what’s going on over here though, and I can tell you that, from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here.
You may have read in your colourful newspapers my country’s President would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored. The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September, it was a September miracle. But the holiday does seem to come earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it?
Millions and millions of people stood up and said: ‘No, this is not acceptable’. People who never watched my show, people who were on record saying they hate my show spoke out, they marched, they did this all to support the right to a free expression of speech and because so many people spoke out, we came back. Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the President lost and now I’m back on the air every night givin’ the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking. That’s a word, right, I used it properly?
And the reason I’m telling you this story is because maybe you’re thinking: ‘Oh a government silencing its critics is something that happens in places like Russia, or North Korea, or LA, not the UK’. Well, that’s what we thought and now we’ve got King Donny the Eighth calling for executions. It happens fast.
You know it’s funny we Americans are very proud of not having a king. It’s kind of why we left. Earlier this year tens of millions of us marched at protests called No Kings. You had some of those there. And just for the record we have nothing against your king. I mean I don’t know if you know this, but his son lives here. We just – well some of us – just have a problem with the guy who thinks he is our king.
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