Country star Jelly Roll stepped in as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and used his opening monologue to take aim at Donald Trump. His jokes touched on the president’s weight, a remark about Trump’s own race comment, and the presidential motorcade lap of honor, landing as the kind of late-night comedy that is built to get a reaction. And a reaction is exactly what it got.
The appearance quickly drew backlash online from Trump supporters, who took offense at the jokes aimed at the president. For many of them, the monologue crossed a line, and the criticism spread fast across social media as clips and comments circulated.
Rather than apologise, Jelly Roll doubled down. He said a president should be able to take jokes, and told offended fans plainly that if they did not like his views, they could stop listening. It was a direct message to the very audience criticising him: he was not backing away from what he had said.
He closed the segment on a very different note, with an emotional tribute to Dolly Parton. Remembering her music playing in his family home, he called her the last American that everyone liked — a warm ending to a night that had started with sharp comedy and ended with a reminder of the music that shaped him.
