Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night said President Donald Trump is running scared as the midterm elections approach ― and is especially panicked about what has traditionally been a deep red state.
“He is shaking in his boots in Texas,” Kimmel said, adding that Trump-picked GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton is trailing Democratic rival James Talarico by 6 points in the latest New York Times poll.
Kimmel called Talarico “one of the strongest candidates” the Democrats have had in a while.
“They have nothing to hit the guy with,” Kimmel said. “So they’re back to this dumb lie claiming he’s a vegan ― or, as Trump pronounces it, vay-gun.”
He rolled a clip of Trump repeatedly mispronouncing the word.
“This man has a team of a hundred people around him at all times,” Kimmel said. “Not one of them pulls him aside and goes, ‘Hey, just FYI, it’s pronounced vegan. It’s not vay-gun. You sound stupid.’”
In another possible sign of election panic, Trump has been using taxpayer dollars to run ads promoting himself, which he falsely claims are public service announcements. A number of the spots ran during the weekend’s football games.
“And not only is he running them during the football games, he’s running them on our show,” Kimmel said, then offered a reminder of what Trump has said about it. “You know, that low-rated show nobody watches that should be cancelled immediately? He’s paying us to be on!”
Kimmel offered the president a way to save money and still get that attention.
“If you want to be on the show, come on out. I’d be glad to go over your list of accomplishments right here for free,” he said. “You don’t have to waste any of our money to do it. We have a nice warm chair for you to sleep in. It’s right next to my desk.”
See more in his Monday night monologue: