Jimmy Kimmel called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday for a reported massive error that earned him the wrath of President Donald Trump.
Kimmel played clips of Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, which featured the usual round of members of his administration kissing up to him in public.
“No one was more effusive today than Pete Hegseth, who for Trump has been a bigger screwup than Eric,” he said, referring to one of the president’s three sons.
Hegseth earlier this month canceled the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to Poland, a move that reportedly surprised the Pentagon and European officials and ticked off his boss.
The Daily Beast reported that Hegseth got “an angry phone call” from the president, who wanted to know why he canceled the deployment ― and had to explain he was mad at Germany, not Poland.
“You know, we’ve all made mistakes,” Kimmel said. “But only Pete Hegseth can make a ‘Donald Trump knows more about Poland than I do’-caliber mistake.”
Kimmel sarcastically suggested that it was easy to see how Hegseth made the error.
“You try telling the difference between Poland and Germany after 16 Coors Lights,” he said, a crack about Hegseth’s reported drinking habits. “It’s hard.”
Kimmel pointed out that, when he was younger, Polish jokes were a staple of comedy.
“Now, thanks to Pete Hegseth, the Polish are making those jokes about us,” he cracked.
See more in his Wednesday night monologue: