Kimmel opened his late-night talk show on Thursday by responding to Mr Trump’s remarks.
Jimmy Kimmel has said that if “low ratings” mean he should be fired, US President Donald Trump should also be unemployed as he is “not doing too good either”.
Kimmel opened his late-night talk show on Thursday by responding to Mr Trump’s remarks questioning when ABC will fire him, saying he “incompetently presides over one of the lowest rated shows on television”.
The comments come after the 58-year-old presenter joked that the US first lady, Melania Trump, looked like an “expectant widow” during a sketch roast of the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Days later a gunman attempted to storm the event.
Mr Trump has since repeatedly pressured US media network ABC to sack Kimmel, and in a post to Truth Social on Thursday he wrote: “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television?
“People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
The talk show host responded to Mr Trump’s post during his opening monologue on his Jimmy Kimmel Live! programme and said: “Or what?
“If incompetently presiding over not just one of, but the lowest rating in history, is the reason I should be fired we should both be out of a job, because you’re not doing too good either.”
Kimmel also went on to name several US senators and congressmen who he has previously “made fun of repeatedly and viciously” on his show, and praised them for not pressuring ABC to fire him due to his jokes.
He also reflected on Mr Trump’s outspoken attitude against “muzzling people you don’t agree with” during his presidential campaign and quipped: “I’m starting to think Donald Trump might be a hypocrite.”
Kimmel added that he and Mr Trump should “figure this out because it’s getting crazy” and, taking aim at the ongoing conflict between US and Iran, he said: “Let’s see if we can come up with a ceasefire agreement. This could be good for both of us.
“I get to keep my job, you get to end your 11th war. What do you say? We can help each other.”
Following his joke that Mrs Trump has the “glow of an expectant widow”, Kimmel has faced backlash from the US president and his wife, with the latter calling him a “coward” in a post on X on Monday.
Mrs Trump wrote: “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy – his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America.”
Kimmel responded to the backlash in Monday night’s episode, and said he was sorry that the president and those in attendance at the event went through that traumatic and scary experience.
The TV host later described the sketch as a light roast and that his widow joke about the first lady was not “a call to assassination”.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said.
“I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
Kimmel was previously taken off the air and suspended indefinitely following comments he made on the show after the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an ally of Mr Trump.
He returned five days later following criticism from the public, Hollywood and political figures who said it was an infringement of their freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.
