Jimmy Kimmel rips Trump's Iran war as 'weapons of mass distraction'

Edward Segarra, USA TODAYTue, March 3, 2026 at 11:37 PM UTC

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Late-night TV show hosts slammed President Donald Trump as tensions flare between the U.S. and Iran following a military attack that resulted in the death of the Middle Eastern country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host and frequent Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel slammed the president on Monday night for his seeming about-face on going to war, playing several archive clips of Trump promising to be a "peacemaker" during his political tenure.

"Trump is suddenly all about toppling regimes," Kimmel said on the March 2 show. "Which is interesting because I remember a time when the idea that a president would start a war because he couldn't make a deal was seen by some as a negative."

The host then played a 2011 interview clip, in which Trump warned that then-President Barack Obama would enter war with Iran because he "has absolutely no ability to negotiate."

President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 2026.

"But hey, when your best friend was a pedophile, and you're losing bigly in the swing states with an election coming up, what do you do?" Kimmel added, throwing in a reference to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "I'll tell you what you do: you fire the weapons of mass distraction."

U.S. and Israeli military forces attacked Iran on Saturday, Feb. 28. Officials from the United States and Israel said they have launched over 1,200 strikes aimed at destroying Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear development programs.

Iran's counterattacks thus far have killed at least six U.S. servicemembers and have led to several U.S. embassies closing in the region, including in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Beirut, Lebanon and Kuwait.

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Stephen Colbert pokes fun at Trump's 'Operation Epic Fury'

During Monday night's show, "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert criticized Trump's growing war with Iran, suggesting that the uptick in military activity could be a response to the controversy surrounding the Epstein files.

"This military mission has been dubbed 'Operation Epic Fury,'" Colbert said. "Fun fact: 'Epic Fury' is an anagram for 'Forget Epstein.'"

The president's former friendship with the late financier has come under increasing scrutiny following the Department of Justice's sweeping investigation of Epstein's past records and communications.

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1 / 0Latest photos capture US and Israeli strikes against Iran

Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

Trump's name, his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and other references to Trump are mentioned 38,000 times across 5,300 files in the Justice Department's Jan. 30 release of files from the investigation into the convicted sex offender, according to a review from the New York Times. Several of the files appeared to be duplicates, however.

Despite his association with Epstein, Trump has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein files.

"An open-ended war of choice in the Middle East with no clear exit strategy or defined victory is where I got on this train," Colbert continued. "And in the last 25 years of talking about this stuff on TV, I have learned not to stand up here and say it like Moses on the mountaintop. ... But I will definitely say that we have no clear idea where this is going or why it's going there."

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Jon Stewart blasts Trump, Congress after Iran attack

"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart roasted Trump and the U.S. forces' attack on Iran and the subsequent death of Khamenei during Monday's episode.

"America apparently had to start an entire war to kill an 86-year-old man in ill health and not wait, I don't know, three weeks to let saturated fat do its thing," Stewart said.

The comedian and TV host also criticized Congress, which is set to vote on a war powers resolution later this week in the Senate, for its delayed reaction to the escalating conflict.

1 / 0Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, see late-night hosts who have beefed with President Trump

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!", will resume production after it was pulled off the air Sept. 17, following comments he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing. Kimmel, a frequent critic of Donald Trump, often earned the ire of the president.After the announcement, Trump urged other networks to do the same. Scroll to see the other late-night talk show hosts that have feuded with the president over the years.

"This is Trump's whole presidency. He does whatever ... he wants and then a few days later, Congress is like: 'Excuse me! Roll your window down. Excuse me, sir? You're not allowed to knock down the East Wing without a permit from the homeowner's association. We're going to let it slide this time.'

"The United States Congress is like male nipples. Why do you exist? What do you do? Nothing! You do nothing!"

Contributing: Michael Loria, Zac Anderson, Jeanine Santucci, Francesca Chambers, Natalie Neysa, Joey Garrison and Zachery Schermele, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Late-night TV criticizes Trump Iran war - Jimmy Kimmel, more hosts

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