Trump’s Midnight Fury Reignites Old Hollywood Feud as Epstein Files Resurface

By Alex Rivera The New York Times November 26, 2025

It was just after midnight when Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social account began lighting up with the familiar all-caps cadence that once dominated Twitter. The target, once again, was Robert De Niro and Jimmy Kimmel, two entertainers who have spent nearly a decade turning the former president—and now president-elect—into late-night television’s most enduring punch line.

The trigger was a 12-minute segment on Monday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that stitched together newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein court documents, decades-old flight logs, and a greatest-hits reel of De Niro’s unfiltered denunciations of Mr. Trump. The Oscar winner’s 2018 Tony Awards exclamation—“F— Trump”—played no fewer than four times, each clip met with roaring studio applause. Mr. Kimmel, smirking directly into the camera, called it “the remix you didn’t know you needed.”

By 12:47 a.m., Mr. Trump responded with a barrage of posts that revived insults from 2016 to 2023: De Niro was “punch-drunk,” “washed up,” and suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome”; Mr. Kimmel remained “talentless” and “the worst host in late-night television.” One post, since deleted but widely screen-captured, read: “Low-IQ Robert De Niro, whose acting career is dead, and Jimmy Kimmel, whose show is dying, are a disgrace!”

The outburst marked the latest chapter in an unusually durable celebrity-political feud, one that has outlasted Mr. Trump’s first term, his 2020 defeat, and his return to power. What began as Hollywood’s reflexive opposition to a reality-television candidate has calcified into something closer to performance art, with both sides seemingly unable—or unwilling—to disengage.

A Segment Built on Timing and Temperature

The Kimmel monologue arrived at a particularly volatile moment. Last week’s release of additional Epstein-related documents, including flight manifests and phone message logs from the early 2000s, reignited online speculation about prominent figures who socialized with the late financier. While Mr. Trump is mentioned in earlier depositions—largely in passing, and with no new allegations of wrongdoing in the latest tranche—the mere reappearance of his name alongside Epstein’s was enough to send certain corners of the internet into frenzy.

Mr. Kimmel, never one to miss a cultural third rail, leaned in. “We’re not saying anything that isn’t already public,” he told the audience, before airing a graphic that juxtaposed a 2002 Palm Beach party photo with a newly unsealed page listing passenger names. The segment stopped short of direct accusation but let the implication hang in the air like late-night smoke.

De Niro, who was not a guest but whose archival footage dominated the bit, has long been the most uncompromising voice in the anti-Trump celebrity chorus. From his 2016 “I’d like to punch him in the face” video to his 2023 Gotham Awards warning that another Trump term would mean “you won’t be on this stage anymore,” the actor has treated political commentary as an extension of character work—raw, unscripted, and often profane.

The Private Reaction Inside Mar-a-Lago

According to three people familiar with the events at Mr. Trump’s Florida estate, the president-elect watched the entire segment live. One aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Trump began dictating posts to an assistant almost immediately, rejecting suggestions to wait until morning. “He kept saying, ‘They can’t do this to me again,’” the aide recalled. Another person present described the scene as “2018 all over again,” a reference to the Singapore-to-Twitter meltdown following De Niro’s Tony Awards moment.

The next morning, Mr. Trump’s communications team attempted damage control, emphasizing that the former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and was never accused of criminal conduct. A spokesperson pointed to Mr. Trump’s 2019 comment that he was “not a fan” of Epstein and had banned him from Mar-a-Lago years earlier.

A Feud That Refuses to Fade

Political scientists have long noted that cultural grievances now rival economic ones in American partisanship. Few examples illustrate that shift more vividly than the Trump–De Niro–Kimmel triangle. For Mr. Trump, attacks from coastal elites validate his claim that a privileged class looks down on his supporters. For De Niro and Mr. Kimmel, the former president remains a civic emergency requiring constant rhetorical resistance.

The numbers suggest the audience is still listening. Monday’s episode drew an estimated 2.8 million viewers, the show’s highest Monday rating in 18 months, while clips on YouTube and TikTok surpassed 40 million views within 24 hours. On X, “De Niro Kimmel Trump” trended ahead of Thanksgiving travel updates.

Whether the feud will matter once Mr. Trump re-enters the Oval Office remains an open question. During his first term, late-night mockery rarely moved policy needles. Yet the persistence of the conflict—now entering its tenth year—offers a reminder of how thoroughly entertainment and politics have fused, and how personal the stakes have become.

As one late-night producer put it, speaking anonymously to avoid alienating future guests: “We all know how this movie ends. The question is how many sequels we’re willing to sit through.”

For now, the credits are still rolling. And somewhere in Florida, a phone is charging for the next act.