Jimmy Kimmel has his own forceful fact-check of Trump's widely panned health-care op-ed

Jimmy Kimmel fact-checks Trump on pre-existing conditons

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Jimmy Kimmel Live)

President Trump wrote an op-ed in Wednesday's USA Today that The Washington Post's fact-checker trashed as containing "a misleading statement or falsehood" in "almost every sentence." The Post was hardly alone in slapping down Trump's claims, and Jimmy Kimmel wasn't impressed with the op-ed either. "Are any of you staying in a Holiday Inn Express and maybe you saw it?" he joked on Wednesday's Kimmel Live, before launching into his own fact check.

"I have to say, this op-ed really makes me mad," he said, "because in it, Trump blasts what he calls the Democrats' Medicare-for-all policy while really, truly outrageously claiming that he kept a promise to protect coverage for those with pre-existing conditions." This is an issue of personal importance for Kimmel, and after reading the relevant bit of the op-ed, he corrected Trump: "No, you didn't keep that promise. That promise was forced on you because John McCain gave you the finger and so you weren't able to not keep that promise — that's not keeping a promise! ... This is like claiming you saved people from drowning after you put a hole in the side of the ship — it's just a lie."

Republicans are apparently running with it, though. "Their strategy — this is true, according to a Republican campaign operative — is to 'Trump people to death,'" Kimmel said. "That is their strategy for the midterms. It's also their health care policy. But it's amazing: In 10 years we went from 'Yes We Can' to 'Trump People to Death.'" Still, he found one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.