Jimmy Kimmel told not to read Trump tweet at Oscars 2024

Oscars 2024 host Jimmy Kimmel’s opinion trumped the advice of the award show’s organizers Sunday night.

Somebody in charge told him not to read aloud a Truth Social post by Donald Trump criticizing his performance at the 96th Academy Awards when he had an extra minute to fill near the end of the ABC broadcast, Kimmel said in an interview Monday.

“They’re like, ‘You’ve got a little bit of time’ and I was like, ‘I’m reading the Trump tweet,’ and they’re like, ‘No, no, don’t read that,’ ” he told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. “[I was like] ‘Yes I am.’ “

The former president and current candidate wrote on the social media platform: “Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos.”

The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” star, 56, recited the mini-review onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles — and then shot back with a jab of his own.

“I’m surprised you’re still [up],” he said. “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

Earlier in his monologue, Kimmel mocked a slew of celebs. 

“This is the highest point of Robert Downey Jr.’s long and illustrious career. Well, one of the highest points,” he said of the Best Supporting Actor winner’s drug problems during the 1990s.

And he poked fun at 80-year-old “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Robert De Niro’s love life.

“In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro’s daughter,” Kimmel said, referring to her role in the film “Taxi Driver.”

“Now, she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend.”

During the ceremony, it appeared that Best Actress winner Emma Stone whispered in annoyance about Kimmel to her husband, Dave McCary, after Kimmel made a crack about the many sex scenes in her movie.

“Those were all the parts of ‘Poor Things’ we’re allowed to show on TV,” he said.

After hosting for the second time in 2019, Kimmel told a Television Critics Association panel that the job is a “f–king nightmare.”

“I did not think I would ever do it again,” Kimmel told the Los Angeles Times, adding that eventual Best Picture loser “Barbie” changed his mind.

“I am sitting in a movie theater watching ‘Barbie’ and thinking, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do this again because at least I have a point of reference with everyone,’ ” he said.