Kimmel Delivers Six-Second Takedown of Trump’s IQ Boast, Igniting Viral Firestorm and Presidential Fury

By Sarah Ellison The New York Times November 26, 2025

LOS ANGELES — In what may be the most devastating six seconds of late-night television this year, Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night obliterated President Trump’s long-standing claim to “genius-level IQ” with a single, perfectly timed line that left the studio in pandemonium and sent the president into a 3 a.m. Truth Social meltdown watched by millions.

The exchange began innocently enough. Mr. Trump, speaking Monday at a Cabinet meeting, had once again boasted about his intelligence, telling reporters: “I have a very high IQ — people don’t know that. I went to Wharton, best school, best grades. I dare anybody to compare IQs with me. Anybody.”

Mr. Kimmel wasted no time. Forty-seven seconds into Tuesday’s monologue, after a brief montage of Mr. Trump’s past “stable genius” declarations, he looked straight into the camera, paused for exactly two beats, and delivered the kill shot:

“Mr. President… I accept.”

Six words. Six seconds. The Ed Sullivan Theater detonated.

The audience leapt to its feet in a single motion, a roar that drowned out the band, lasted 52 seconds — the longest spontaneous ovation of the season — and forced producers to cut to commercial early as confetti cannons misfired and crew members openly applauded. When the show returned, Mr. Kimmel, visibly surprised by the reaction, simply shrugged: “I mean, he dared us.”

The clip exploded across platforms within minutes. By midnight it had 28 million views on YouTube, 45 million on TikTok, and was the No. 1 worldwide trend on X under #IQChallenge. Users slowed the six-second moment to 0.25 speed, overlaid dramatic orchestral swells, and stitched it with reaction shots from past Trump meltdowns. One viral edit paired it with the slow-motion knockout punch from “Rocky IV.”

Mr. Trump, apparently watching from Mar-a-Lago, responded at 3:07 a.m. with a 412-word, all-caps Truth Social post that began: “LOW-IQ JIMMY KIMMEL THINKS HE CAN CHALLENGE YOUR PRESIDENT’S GENIUS IQ? I SCORED 1560+ (PERFECT!) — HE CAN’T EVEN READ A TELEPROMPTER WITHOUT CRYING! FAKE COMEDIAN, TERRIBLE RATINGS, TOTAL LOSER!” The post, viewed 18 million times by dawn, included a doctored graphic purporting to show Mr. Trump’s SAT score alongside Mr. Kimmel’s alleged 890 — a number Kimmel himself had jokingly claimed years earlier.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, during Wednesday’s briefing, called the segment “a disgusting attack on presidential intellect” and accused Mr. Kimmel of “coordinated deep-state mockery.” Behind the scenes, aides described a president demanding that staff locate any record — real or fabricated — of his IQ test results, with one official anonymously recounting Mr. Trump shouting: “Find the test! I took it — it was perfect!”

The moment has crystallized a recurring tension: Mr. Trump’s decades-long obsession with proving intellectual superiority, from unverified claims of topping his Wharton class to repeated demands that reporters “test” him. Mr. Kimmel’s six-second acceptance turned that insecurity into public sport.

Even some Republicans privately winced. “He walked into a buzz saw,” a senior G.O.P. strategist said on condition of anonymity. “You don’t dare late-night television to humiliate you on your weakest spot.”

Late-night peers piled on. Stephen Colbert opened Wednesday’s show by silently holding up a Mensa application for 10 seconds before tearing it in half. Seth Meyers deadpanned: “Jimmy accepted the dare in six seconds. Trump’s response took 412 words and three exclamation points per sentence. I think we have a winner.”

By Wednesday afternoon, #IQChallenge had spawned merchandise — T-shirts reading “I Accept” sold out on multiple sites — and a Change.org petition demanding both men release actual IQ results had reached 1.2 million signatures. Mr. Kimmel, asked backstage if he would take a test, laughed: “Only if it’s multiple choice and one of the options is ‘stable genius.’”

For Mr. Trump, whose brand has long rested on the myth of superlative intelligence, the six-second clip is a wound that no all-caps rebuttal can cauterize. As the video loops endlessly across screens large and small, one truth is undeniable: in the court of public opinion, sometimes the sharpest blade is silence followed by a dare accepted.