On Thursday, March 26, 2026, President Donald Trump unleashed a heated attack on late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, phoning into Fox News’ “The Five” to call for the host’s termination after Kimmel mocked the president’s recently appointed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary.
The president, age 79, became enraged over Kimmel’s comedic segment targeting Markwayne Mullin, the 48-year-old former Oklahoma senator who received confirmed on March 23 to succeed Kristi Noem, dismissed by Trump as his second term’s initial cabinet termination.
“He’s a loser. He gets no ratings. He’s got no talent. He’s got Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump declared to the Fox News hosts during his March 26 telephone appearance. “Whenever I watch, I just can’t believe that he’s even on the air. He shouldn’t be on the air. He should be canned.”
During his March 25 monologue, Kimmel devoted multiple minutes to Mullin after the White House swearing-in ceremony, emphasizing the new secretary’s background as both a plumber and MMA competitor. The late-night host drew a comparison between Mullin and Super Mario, suggesting that America currently has “a plumber protecting us from terrorism.” His jokes continued: “Next time instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it.”
Mullin’s fighting background proves more substantial than Kimmel indicated. Based on official documentation, Mullin maintained an unblemished professional MMA career prior to his political entry, with sources reporting either a 5-0 or 3-0 record. During his “The Five” call, Trump challenged the “low-level” description, emphasizing that Mullin “had a very good record in fighting” against opponents who were “rough cookies.”
The dispute emerged weeks following Trump’s March 5 Truth Social announcement of Noem’s dismissal. During that week, Noem endured two catastrophic congressional hearings before the Senate and House, featuring damaging revelations about a $200 million advertising initiative prominently showcasing her—including clips of the secretary riding horseback at Mount Rushmore. Trump subsequently disavowed knowledge of the extravagant expenditure. “I never knew anything about it,” he informed Reuters.
Noem received a new assignment from Trump as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, characterized as “our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.” Kimmel ruthlessly ridiculed the appointment, wishing Noem success in her “brand new, completely made-up job.”
When Trump and conservative legislators criticized him for allegedly demeaning blue-collar laborers, the late-night comedian refused to retreat. Texas Senator Ted Cruz declared his preference for “plumbers to woke & unfunny comedians,” and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis charged Kimmel with displaying “disdain for working class Americans.”
Georgia Representative Mike Collins added his criticism, stating that “the elites too often look down their noses at blue collar, middle America” and observing that labeling a senator a plumber “doesn’t do him justice”—emphasizing that Mullin created a thriving enterprise employing numerous families.
On his Thursday broadcast, Kimmel confronted the criticism head-on, explaining that detractors had intentionally misrepresented his remarks to suggest he disparaged plumbers. “I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber,” Kimmel responded. “I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber!”
The comedian expanded on his genuine concern: “I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of homeland security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet. We all have our areas of expertise.”
During the Fox News telephone interview, Trump supported his selection, applauding Mullin’s entrepreneurial success managing his family’s plumbing enterprise and characterizing him as “country smart.” The president forecast that Mullin would “do a fantastic job” and stated, “everybody loves him.”
Mullin assumed control of his father’s failing plumbing enterprise at age 20 following his father’s illness before beginning his political career. Across nearly thirty years, he and his wife Christie grew Mullin Plumbing into the area’s largest service provider. His political career included ten years in the House and three years in the Senate prior to Trump selecting him for DHS. Significantly, Mullin holds enrollment in the Cherokee Nation and became the first Native American senator following Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s 2005 retirement.
Mullin’s Senate confirmation passed by a 54-45 margin, with Democratic Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico breaking ranks to approve him. Republican Senator Rand Paul cast the only GOP opposition vote to Mullin’s confirmation, expressing concerns about whether someone with what he termed “anger issues” should oversee an agency confronting use-of-force disputes.
This conflict marks the most recent confrontation between Trump and Kimmel, who has become among the president’s most persistent late-night adversaries.
A DHS pushed back on the mockery representative responded to the ridicule in a Fox News Digital statement: “DHS is too busy arresting gang members, terrorists, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and other criminal illegal aliens to engage in this kind of silliness.”
With the verbal battle persisting, both Trump and Kimmel demonstrate no indication of retreating from their ongoing feud, which has captured headlines and social media attention across the week.
