Jimmy Kimmel has suggested that he could be the next American comedian to flee to Europe to escape life in America under President Donald Trump.
In a podcast conversation with Sarah Silverman last week, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host revealed that he had obtained Italian citizenship, which he said would come in handy if he decides to leave the United States because “what’s going on (with Trump) is as bad as you thought it was gonna be.”
Indeed, Kimmel told Silverman, his former girlfriend: “It’s so much worse; it’s just unbelievable. I feel like it’s probably even worse than he would like it to be.”
With this, Kimmel could join other celebrities, notably Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell, who have hailed the benefits of leaving the United States for the duration of the Trump presidency. Indeed, these stars almost seem to brandish leaving America right now as a badge of courage and honor.
But in their declarations, they also reveal that they have the privilege of leaving. They can just pick up and create a new life in another country. A lot their fans, who share their political viewpoints, aren’t so fortunate. They can’t afford to hire attorneys to deal with the immigration issues, or they’re tied to jobs in the United States that are necessary for the livelihood.
If Kimmel gets bounced from his ABC late-night show, as Trump has predicted, he’s probably amassed enough of a nest egg that he could move to Italy and set up a second household there. He could probably live pretty comfortably, maybe play stay-at-home dad to his two younger children, 11 and 8, or pursue other creative and professional opportunities.
According to the Daily Beast, citing a report from the Italian news agency Ansa, Kimmel obtained Italian citizenship this year after proving his ancestral lineage. Kimmel’s maternal great-grandparents emigrated to New York from Naples after an earthquake devastated their hometown, Ischia, in 1883.
Kimmel, who has hosted his late-night show for 22 years, has a long history of bashing Trump and his MAGA policies during his monologues, which prompted the president to predict that his show would be the next to be canceled, after CBS gave the ax to Stephen Colbert and “The Late Show” in late June. Trump gloated on Truth Social: “Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon. The only real question is, who will go first?”
Kimmel fired back with an Instagram post referring to Trump’s friendship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“I’m hearing you’re next. Or maybe it’s just another wonderful secret,” Kimmel wrote, a reference to a line in a letter that Trump reportedly wrote to Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump has denied writing the letter, which was described in a Wall Street Journal article
In obtaining Italian citizenship, Kimmel has opened up the possibility that he and his family could join O’Donnell and DeGeneres in Europe. They fled to Ireland and England, respectively, after Trump was elected president.
O’Donnell has engaged in multiple public feuds with Trump over the years. She told CNN: “I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country.”
DeGeneres said that she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, had actually made steps to move to England, at least-part time, before the 2024 election. “We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis,” DeGeneres told a BBC broadcaster Richard Bacon, “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.’”
