In a recent segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, drag queen Trixie Mattel read Eric Trump’s memoir, Under Siege: My Family’s Fight to Save Our Nation, to a group of children during the show’s "Drag Queen Storytime." The segment, which has sparked significant controversy, saw Mattel, dressed in women’s clothing, introduce the book with a tone of irreverence before engaging in what many are calling a politically charged stunt.
Mattel kicked off the segment by asking the children, “Do I scare any of you?” to which the kids responded, “No,” with one child adding, “You just look amazing. Why would that be scary?” After some lighthearted banter, Mattel presented a "whole pile of books" and offered to let the children choose one. When the kids rejected titles like Who Cares About Elderly People? and Collectable Spoons of the Third Reich, Mattel suggested reading from Eric Trump’s memoir, jokingly referring to him as Trump’s “least favorite son.”
As Mattel read from the memoir, including a passage where Eric Trump describes his father as “the greatest father a son or daughter could ever have,” one child quickly interrupted, saying, “Instead of skipping this page, we should skip the entire book.” The child even asked if they could skip the story time entirely and go straight to lunch, a request Mattel humorously entertained.
But the drama didn’t end there. The segment culminated in a dramatic “special science experiment” where Mattel took a copy of Eric Trump’s book and threw it into a wood chipper, declaring, “This might not be a great book, but it’s going to make excellent confetti.” This shocking act of destruction of a political figure’s book drew immediate backlash.
This wasn’t the first time Jimmy Kimmel Live! has used Drag Queen Storytime to mock conservative figures. In 2023, Kimmel hosted another segment where Mattel read from Sen. Ted Cruz’s book, Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America, again using the opportunity to poke fun at Republicans.
The latest segment, while intended as comedic entertainment, has reignited debates about the role of drag queens in children’s programming and the appropriateness of exposing children to politically charged content. Critics argue that such segments cross a line by using children as pawns in political games, while others view it as harmless fun, arguing that the satirical nature of the segment was never meant to be taken seriously.
Regardless of your stance, it's clear that Jimmy Kimmel’s Drag Queen Storytime continues to spark outrage and laughter, depending on where you stand politically.
