Jimmy’s Back!

A victory for the First Amendment

Sep 23, 2025

Jimmy Kimmel with his sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez

Jimmy Kimmel has been reinstated and will return to the air tonight.

Kimmel was “indefinitely suspended” from his comedy talk show last week as ABC and its parent company, Disney, folded to pressure from the Trump administration.

The removal of Kimmel’s show quickly became a flashpoint for free speech in America. Disney stock fell by more than $4 billion, scores of people across the country canceled their subscriptions, major public figures spoke out, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Hollywood studio where Kimmel films his late-night show, and free speech advocates held protests nationwide.

And it wasn’t really about the benign comments Jimmy Kimmel made in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, which were mostly focused on Donald Trump. It was about the president’s longstanding hatred of Kimmel lampooning him during his monologues. Trump’s thin skin. His loathing of any critics. His lust for retribution. His desire for complete control over the public narrative. His willingness to destroy the First Amendment right of free speech of any and all who dare to speak anything but praise for the Dear Leader.

Note to POTUS

Mr. President, comedians have a First Amendment right to mock you. When you seek to silence them, it’s straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

The Nazi regime systematically silenced comedians and satirists who mocked the government or its leaders. Under the direction of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the state aggressively censored all forms of entertainment, viewing critical humor as a significant political threat.

Mr. President, the free press has a First Amendment right to report on you and your administration. When you seek to muzzle journalists, file specious lawsuits against them, turn your cult followers on them, and make the insane assertion that it’s illegal to publish or broadcast negative reports on you, it’s straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

Under the Nazi regime, journalism was systematically censored, controlled, and weaponized as a tool of propaganda. When the Nazis came to power, they moved swiftly to eliminate Germany's free press, which was a world leader in communications at the time, and replace it with a state-controlled propaganda apparatus.

Nazi officials hanging a portrait of Adolf Hitler, Trump banner on USDA building

When you hang banners of yourself on government buildings like the Nazi’s did with Hitler portraits during the Third Reich, it shows us who you are and how you think.

We have heard your boasts about sharing “love letters” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. We have seen you roll out the red carpet on American soil for Vladimir Putin. We know of your support for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and anger over the conviction of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the presidential election in 2022.

According to civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne and political theorist William E. Connolly, your rhetoric employs tropes similar to those used by fascists in Germany to persuade citizens (at first a minority) to give up democracy, by using a barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, xenophobia, national-security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never-ending search for scapegoats.

You are now demanding that your Attorney General prosecute your political rivals, which is also right out of the Nazi playbook. When you walk like an authoritarian fascist and quack like an authoritarian fascist, the conclusion is simple logic.

So when we point you out for who you are and what you do, it’s not fake news. It’s not a hoax. It’s not name-calling. It’s telling it like it is.

Postscript:

The uproar over the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel was a testament to people power in action, an affirmation for all Americans who are willing to stand up for the fundamental principles of our democracy.

We must all stand in the breach and never submit in advance to the many attacks on our democracy. It’s up to us, all of us, to unite, turn out, speak out, never give up, and never give in.

The next national No Kings nationwide protest is scheduled for October 18.