Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers Call Out Trump’s “I Wasn’t on the Ballot” Excuse for Midterm Losses: “Shut Up”

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Jimmy Kimmel was quick to take aim at Donald Trump on election night after the 2026 midterms saw significant wins by Democrats across the country.

But he wasn’t done. On Wednesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, after more results came in and explanations and excuses started streaming in for the blue wave and GOP defeat, the host had more choice words for the president.

Kimmel in particular focused on how Trump claimed, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

“Oh, shut up. Just shut up. Please. Give us a break for one day and shut that ridiculous mouth,” Kimmel said. “You are such a spoiled child. Did you ever learn anything? About manners — or sportsmanship — or simple common decency? Nothing is ever your fault!”

Kimmel added, “You were on the ballot. You’re like dog hair. You’re on everything. You’ve infected every nook and cranny of our lives.”

Indeed, Trump spent months saying he was on the ballot, or told voters to pretend he was, with The Washington Post finding that he made that declaration at least 63 times before Election Day.

Kimmel wasn’t the only late night host to take issue with Trump’s “I wasn’t on the ballot” about-face.

On NBC’s Late Night, Seth Meyers aired a compilation of the multiple times Trump insisted he was essentially on the ballot in the run-up to the midterms.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you were on the fucking ballot, my man,” Meyers said. “Your name might not have been there, but it’s not like everyone forgot who was president. You did like 30 rallies in the month leading up to the midterms. You wouldn’t shut up. You kept talking about how good senators’ asses were. You made the whole thing about you.”

And even if Trump hadn’t suggested that he was on the ballot, the president endorsed many of the Republicans who lost, Kimmel pointed out.

“All your big handpicked candidates lost! You picked Darline Graham to run in South Carolina; you ran Thom Tillis out of the Senate; you backed that pathetic Ken Paxton in Texas; you went all in on Vivek Ramaswamy, and his disgusting campaign ad; and if you hadn’t picked Mr. Charisma J.D. Vance to be your vice president, Republicans would still have that Senate seat they lost in Ohio last night,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel also took issue with Trump, after “whining about election fraud,” telling The New York Times that he would accept the results.

“How is this even news? You’ll accept the results? Oh, thank you,” he said. “How gracious. Results are not for you to accept or reject — they are results. Like, could you imagine this? ‘Spurs say they will accept loss to Knicks in NBA Finals’ No! They don’t have to accept it! It’s the score!”

Kimmel went on to insist that Trump resign.

“Quit already. Just quit,” he said. “Nobody wants you. Even you don’t want to be president anymore. Take that billion dollars’ worth of crypto, buy an island — maybe [Jeffrey] Epstein’s island! Wouldn’t that be a perfect end to this story?”

And the host indicated he was optimistic that a Vance presidency wouldn’t be that bad.

“And maybe you’re thinking, ‘Well, if he quit, wouldn’t that make J.D. Vance president?’ Well, yes, it would. But here’s the thing about J.D. Vance: A person who flipped from ‘Donald Trump is the American Hitler’ to ‘Donald Trump is the greatest president of my generation’ can flip back. It’s easy when you have no spine. He’s a very good flipper.”