Donald Trump Jr. Denounces Jimmy Kimmel in Furious Tirade After Late-Night Host Airs Recording of Him Calling Police on Protestors

By Katie Rogers and Jeremy W. Peters Dec. 4, 2025

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son and an increasingly visible surrogate, unleashed a blistering, expletive-laden denunciation of Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday after the late-night host broadcast a secretly recorded phone call in which Mr. Trump appeared to summon local police to remove peaceful demonstrators outside a Trump Organization property in Manhattan.

The episode, which aired Wednesday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” has plunged the Trump family’s inner circle into fresh turmoil, with sources at Mar-a-Lago describing a night of shouting matches, smashed crystal, and at least one overturned dessert cart as the president and his children grappled with the latest public humiliation.

The recording, obtained by ABC News and authenticated by three law enforcement sources, captured Mr. Trump on speakerphone with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office at 11:42 p.m. Tuesday. In it, he can be heard demanding the immediate arrest of roughly two dozen protesters who had gathered across the street from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue holding signs reading “Release the Epstein Files” and “Don Jr. Called the Cops on Free Speech.”

“Get them out of here,” Mr. Trump is heard saying, his voice rising. “They’re blocking the sidewalk, they’re screaming, it’s a disgrace. I pay millions in taxes. Do your job!”

The protesters, organized by a loose coalition of Gen-Z activists and survivors’ advocacy groups, insisted they were on public property and had broken no laws. New York Police Department officers who responded to the call determined the demonstration was lawful and declined to make arrests.

Mr. Kimmel played the full 87-second clip without interruption, then leaned into the camera with mock solemnity. “Ladies and gentlemen, the party of ‘back the blue’ and ‘small government’ proudly presents: Don Jr. dialing 911 because some college kids hurt his feelings with cardboard signs,” he said. The studio audience roared for nearly 20 seconds, the longest ovation of the season.

The host then cut to a supercut of Mr. Trump’s past statements praising “law and order” and mocking “snowflakes” who call the police over speech they dislike. “To quote the great philosopher Donald Trump Jr.,” Mr. Kimmel deadpanned, “own the libs by having the state remove them at gunpoint. Very alpha.”

By sunrise Thursday, Mr. Trump had posted a 12-minute video to his Rumble channel filmed in what appeared to be the back of a black SUV. Shirt unbuttoned, eyes bloodshot, he repeatedly called Mr. Kimmel a “degenerate late-night loser,” a “pedophile protector,” and “the ugliest man on television, inside and out.” He accused the host of staging the protest himself and threatened to sue ABC, Disney, and “every intern who laughed in that audience.”

“Jimmy Kimmel is a sick person who hates America,” Mr. Trump said, voice cracking. “He plays a phone call, edits it, lies about it, and you sheep eat it up. My father is president. We don’t have to take this.”

The tirade quickly backfired. Within hours, #DonJrCalledTheCops trended worldwide, spawning thousands of memes superimposing Mr. Trump’s face onto Karen stereotypes and 1990s “Can I speak to the manager?” haircuts. A TikTok sound of his voice saying “Do your job!” overlaid on footage of police declining to act racked up 41 million views by Thursday evening.

Inside Mar-a-Lago, the fallout was visceral. Four people with direct knowledge of the evening described a scene bordering on farce: the president, informed of the segment while eating a filet mignon well-done with ketchup, reportedly hurled a remote control at a 75-inch television, shattering both. Eric Trump attempted to calm his brother by suggesting they “just buy ABC and fire Kimmel,” only to be reminded that the family no longer has that kind of liquidity. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair, was overheard telling aides to prepare a counter-segment for her own streaming show, “The Right View,” featuring body-cam footage of “real crimes” in Democratic cities.

The most dramatic moment came when Kimberly Guilfoyle, Mr. Trump’s fiancée, allegedly confronted him in the estate’s library, accusing him of “handing the late-night liberals ammunition on a silver platter.” Witnesses said Mr. Trump responded by screaming, “You’re not even married to me yet, stay in your lane!” before storming out to the golf course at 1:15 a.m., still in bedroom slippers.

The incident has exposed a raw nerve in the Trump ecosystem: the family’s acute sensitivity to mockery at a time when the president’s approval ratings hover in the low 40s and Republican senators are quietly distancing themselves from controversial cabinet nominees. Several Republican strategists, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the younger Mr. Trump’s reaction as “self-destructive” and warned that his visibility risks becoming a liability ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Legal experts said the recording itself raises no obvious legal issues for ABC, as New York is a one-party consent state and the call was made to a public emergency line. But the episode has reignited calls from Democrats for congressional hearings into the Trump family’s use of law enforcement resources for personal disputes. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, posted a clip of the call with the caption: “When you’re so afraid of 22-year-olds with poster board that you weaponize the police. This is the ‘strongman’ energy they keep selling you.”

For Mr. Kimmel, the night was another ratings triumph. Overnight figures showed 3.8 million viewers, the highest Wednesday audience in five years. Backstage, crew members said the host was “almost giddy,” telling writers, “They just keep handing us material. At this point I’m basically a government employee.”

As dawn broke over the Atlantic, groundskeepers at Mar-a-Lago swept up shards of Baccarat crystal from the patio while the president, according to aides, scrolled furiously through his phone searching for anyone in the room willing to appear on Newsmax and defend his son. Few volunteered.