Yesterday I wrote about the media freak out over Trump's comments about Iran and gas prices. Democrats and media types (but I repeat myself) spent a good chunk of the day pretending to be confused about Trump's comments so that they could insinuate the president, who is currently fighting a war against Iran, had invited Iran to blow up American cities.
The fact that this made no sense at all didn't seem to matter to a lot of people whose news sense was formed post 2016 when any bad news for Trump became a story worth pursuing and a way to goose ratings, whether or not it was true.
Eventually, some of the offenders found a modicum of shame and made corrections. For instance, The Guardian added this line at the end of their article.
This article was amended on 6 October 2026. Trump suggested that Iran could “take out” the two cities, but did not suggest that it do so, as the original headline indicated.
USA Today actually ran an opinion piece today critical of the whole sad affair.
Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, if you read this headline from The New York Times, you'd be appalled at President Donald Trump's seemingly callous comments about the Iran war and high gas prices: "Fury in California After Trump Suggests Iran ‘Take Out’ L.A. or San Diego."...
But you'd be wrong.
Trump did talk about high gas prices driven by the Iran war – and he did say those words. But context matters. His phrasing was clumsy, but he has never so much as hinted that he wants a foreign power to attack our homeland. He went to war with Iran to stop it from getting a nuclear weapon and to deter future attacks.
That hasn't stopped Democrats and liberal media outlets from running headlines and social media clips stripped of context to smear him. Their reaction to these comments reveals a bizarre eagerness to spread a nasty, false narrative.
The bizarre eagerness to just let this lie flood the airwaves was evident on CNN yesterday where a guest host did her best to pretend there were really two ways to look at this.
Hours after CNN's own Trump-hostile fact-checker determined Trump didn't call for Iran to wipe L.A. and San Diego out, CNN (sub) hosts are still suggesting he did. @ScottJenningsKY and @jasonrantz promptly shot this bad-faith frame down. https://t.co/rkFU1Q7iWi
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 7, 2026
And over at ABC, partisan hack Jimmy Kimmel turned this fake story into a part of his monologue. Notice that, even in writing up this story, Rolling Stone refuses to play along with Kimmel and states up front that the "small price to pay" was a reference to prices, not to destroyed cities.
Jimmy Kimmel took aim at Donald Trump after the president invited Iran to bomb California. On Monday, Trump suggested that soaring costs are “a small price to pay” to ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon.
“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, for keeping our country safe,” he said. “They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”
But Kimmel of course pretended not to understand what Trump meant and used this lie to spin up a nasty rant.
“I know he says a lot of crazy things,” Kimmel said. “I know this is something we’ll forget about by Thursday when he accidentally swallows a baby at a rally or whatever the hell he does next. But that’s one of the craziest, indefensible statements I’ve ever heard even this maniac make. Openly musing about Iran, a country we are currently at war with, taking out two taking out two American cities while his adoring fans cheer him on. But it’s OK because we’re liberals. We deserve to get bombed.”
He added, “Can somebody please change this man’s diaper already? I think that old nut has been sitting in his own excrement too long. He has the rant-a virus and it needs to be treated medically. Now we have our own president wishing death to America. We already had a huge bomb here this weekend. It’s called Digger.”
“This is insane,” Kimmel continued. “It really is. Even from him. And do you remember how upset the red-hat club was when I did a joke about Trump and Melania’s May-December romance?” Kimmel then played a series of clips of the conservative media calling his jokes “dangerous.”
As you'll see below, Kimmel didn't tell the audience what he actually said that upset Trump and the First Lady, so here it is.
Jimmy Kimmel mocking Melania Trump at his alternate universe parody WH correspondence dinner saying .. "OUR FIRST LADY, MELANIA IS HERE. LOOK AT MELANIA, SO BEAUTIFUL MRS. TRUMP, YOU HAVE A GLOW LIKE AN EXPECTANT WIDOW." Your reminder to cancel @Disney @ABC if ypu haven't already. Kimmel and all the rest of the deranged left should be held accountable for COLE ALLEN.
— Patriot Lady (@angelwoman501) April 26, 2026
Kimmel later explained the joke at length saying it was just about Trump's age, but he doesn't mention that this happened just two days before a deranged man tried to enter the White House Correspondents' Dinner with a gun.
I'm not suggesting that was Kimmel's fault, but I think it helps explain why people felt so touchy about jokes about Trump dying and Melania being a widow at that moment. Again, Kimmel didn't include the joke in his reference to it last night. He knew it wouldn't sound good so he just left it out while he pretends to be outraged about something Trump didn't say.
Kimmel played this same game when he claimed that Charlie Kirk's assassin was someone on the right. That was another false story circulating on the Left when he said it. It wasn't true or defensible at the time. In fact, Kirk's killer, Tyler Robinson, had moved left and was dating a trans person at the time he shot Kirk. But the truth really didn't matter to Kimmel, only blaming the bad people.
So of course Kimmel went all in on this latest lie. This is just what he does. Whether it's true or fabricated doesn't matter to him, just as it didn't to many of the outlets who ran the false headlines he based this on. Here's the clip.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy HotAir's conservative reporting exposing the radical left and woke media? Support our work so we can keep bringing you the truth.
Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member