ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said during a podcast posted on Thursday that Christianity has been “co-opted and perverted” while criticizing President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

“It especially bothers me being brought up Catholic in a very positive Catholic environment, that Christianity has been co-opted and perverted in such a way and that I find especially upsetting. And that I think about what Jesus would think of this stuff, and I mean it seems pretty plain that he wouldn’t think it’s great,” Kimmel told Ted Danson during his “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast.

According to the description of the episode on YouTube, the conversation was recorded prior to Kimmel’s brief suspension last month over his remarks about the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk.

“That he wouldn’t approve of nannies being yanked out of the park and thrust into a van to be returned to their home countries because their paperwork is not in order, that just all really seems very obvious to me,” Kimmel added.

Comedian and TV producer Jimmy Kimmel speaks during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 8, 2025.

“It’s become almost like sports where I root for the red team, and you root for the blue team and everything the blue team does is good and everything the red team does is bad and vice versa. And I just sometimes, I hope and maybe foolishly, that it will resonate with at least those people who don’t have their minds completely made up,” he added.

Kimmel argued earlier that it didn’t make sense to kick illegal immigrants out of the country.

“Besides the fact that it’s just like how can you go to church on Sunday and think this is okay to do to these families, to do to these people and to be so cold about it,” he said. “I would understand if I’m an immigrant who followed all the rules and came into this country and jumped through all the hoops, that I might be somewhat resentful of somebody who snuck in some way or whatever. But, people are just looking for better lives. They’re just trying to improve their lives for their families, for themselves. They come here, they work hard. They, whether you want to believe it or not, they are paying taxes.”

Danson praised Kimmel earlier in the discussion for speaking out against the administration.

Jimmy Kimmel, host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” during the show on September 23, 2025.

“The courage you have to take on things that are just wrong and people, some of us, you know, are trying to look the other way. And you look directly at it, and you go after it, whether it’s this administration or what. And that courage is really admirable. I really admire you,” Danson said.

Kimmel, who is outspoken about his criticisms of Trump, was also asked about CBS canceling late-night host Stephen Colbert’s show.

“I mean, what I do know for sure is that some of the information that has been released by the people who let him go can’t possibly be true. There’s no way he’s losing $40 million a year. There’s no way it’s even close to that. I know how finances of late-night television shows work and it’s just ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense at all. So when you hear things that are obviously lies, you have to assume that there are more lies behind it,” Kimmel said.

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Late-night host Stephen Colbert during “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on July 17, 2025.

Colbert’s show is set to end in May 2026. CBS has said the decision was motivated by finances and was not a political statement against the host, an outspoken progressive.