At this point, Donald Trump’s tax returns — much like Donald Trump himself — are a bit like a mythical beast in that you’re not entirely sure their existence isn’t some giant hoax. But for those who still care and/or are interested, including Jimmy Kimmel, the Supreme Court might just have gotten us one step closer to actually seeing what the hell is hiding in the former president’s financial records.
As Kimmel shared on Tuesday night:
We may actually, finally, maybe get to see what Darth Tax Evader has been hiding from us. The Supreme Court today ruled against him and they denied Trump’s request to stop Democrats in the House from examining his taxes. The ruling was unanimous; there were no dissents. You know it’s bad when even Clarence Thomas is like, ‘I’m out, bro. You’re on your own on this one.’
Trump, of course, is not happy with this ruling. Because, as Kimmel noted, “as he told us many, many times, he was planning to release them himself.” The late-night host then shared a compilation video starting back in 2014 and going all the way through to 2020 in which the former (and sometimes, within the context of the video, current) president shares how willing and “proud” he’ll be to release his tax returns — if only he weren’t being audited.
“He promised to release these tax returns more times than he promised to release Melania,” Kimmel joked. “Like 10,000.” (You can watch the full Trump segment above, beginning around the 2:20 mark.)
Meanwhile, Kimmel continued, Fox News seemed more interested in turning centuries-old presidential traditions into a scandal. Over on Laura Ingraham‘s show, they were aghast that the presidential turkey pardon took place on the same day as the delivery of the White House Christmas tree. My stars!
“The turkey pardon had barely happened, or it was barely finished, when Jill Biden went out to receive the White House Christmas tree,” lamented Ingraham’s guest. “At this rate, New Year’s Eve could be coming tonight at midnight! I mean, can we take a breath between the seasons?!”
Admittedly, even Ingraham seemed to realize that this bit of performative outrage was a little desperate — her main contribution was adding in a few gasps and eye rolls. As Kimmel pointed out, “maybe the funniest part of Fox complaining about the White House skipping Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas: Earlier that night, they had a big show of lighting the Fox Christmas tree, complete with Santa and top-quality Christmas-themed merch.” And one evil Grinch co-host (a.k.a. Jesse Watters).