Jimmy Kimmel Takes Aim At Nemesis Donald Trump While Giving Out Oscar For Best Documentary: “Oh Man. He Is Gonna Be Mad His Wife Wasn’t Nominated For This”

Jimmy Kimmel was ostensibly at the 2026 Oscars to present the awards for Best Documentary Short and Best Documentary Feature, but of course, he took his platform to dig into politics. After lobbing a shot comparing CBS to North Korea, he then dug the knife deeper by slamming First Lady Melania Trump‘s recent critically-panned doc, Melania. Kimmel finished his time at the mic, by referring again to the Trumps. Knocking President Donald Trump, Kimmel quipped, “Oh, man. He is gonna be mad that his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” before presenting the second award.

After making a joke about how he was stepping in for Oscars host Conan O’Brien, who had

“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage,” Kimmel said. “As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which.”

“Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” he said.

The star-studded audience at the Dolby Theater then broke into a mix of gasps, laughs, and applause.

Kimmel then continued. “Fortunately for all of us, there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action.”

“And there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” Kimmel said, as a dig to First Lady Melania Trump and her recent Amazon Studios documentary, Melania.

After presenting the Oscar to Best Documentary Short winner All the Empty Rooms, which is a poignant look at the children’s bedrooms left behind by victims of school shootings in the USA, Kimmel then returned to the Trumps before announcing that Mr. Nobody Against Putin won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Kimmel’s remarks drew gasps, laughs, and even applause from the audience, who obviously showed their own political leanings through the docs that won.

If you want to watch Melania, you can now stream it on Prime Video.