Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Donald Trump after Poll Shows Him Tied With Ron DeSantis for 2024

Jimmy Kimmel made fun of Donald Trump, as he referred to a poll that showed the former president neck and neck with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the race to head the GOP ticket for the 2024 election.

During his monologue on Thursday, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host referred to Trump as he compared Fox News coverage relishing the boos that President Joe Biden got at a congressional baseball game this week with the poor reception that his predecessor once received.

"For the record that's not booing at Nationals Park," Kimmel said, before moving to a clip of Trump getting a hostile reception from a crowd at the same Washington, DC stadium in 2019. "This is booing the president."

Then in an apparent reference to baseball legend Don Mattingly, Kimmel continued: "Don Fattingly by the way is having a very difficult week. Republican support for Trump appears to be dwindling.

"According to a brand new poll, Trump is now virtually tied with Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, for the Republican nomination in 2024.

"I don't have a joke about that, I just want to make sure he hears about it," Kimmel said, to audience laughter.

Kimmel's comment follows the release of a survey of 1,000 people by Carter Wrenn on behalf of a super PAC organized by Trump's ex-chief of staff John Bolton, who wrote a damning account of his administration called The Room Where It Happened.

When asked who they would vote for if the next Republican primary for president was held in their state today, 26.2 percent of respondents vouched for Trump, which was only 1 percentage point ahead of DeSantis (25.2 percent), and well within the 3.1 percent margin of error.

The survey conducted between September 16 and 18 and released on Wednesday reported a 20 percent drop in support for Trump since a previous John Bolton Super PAC poll in July.

In that time, Trump's support dropped by 23.5 percentage points—to 34 percent, among "very conservative voters" and by 22.4 percentage points—to 24.5 percent, among "somewhat conservative voters."

Trump and DeSantis were well ahead of other Republicans in the frame for 2024, such as former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (7.2 percent), ex-ambassador to the U.N, Nikki Haley (6 percent) and Texas senator Ted Cruz (4.7 percent).

"Consistent with our prior polls, the desire for a fresh face continues to increase," the poll said, pointing out that 57 percent said a new GOP candidate "would be a stronger candidate to defeat Joe Biden in 2024."

Impact of Afghanistan Exit

Bolton blamed Trump's drop in support on the exit from Afghanistan, which was condemned internationally and culminated in the killing of 13 service members during an attack near Kabul airport.

"Voters were smart enough to see that President Trump started the withdrawal and legitimized the Taliban through negotiations," Bolton said in a statement.

"Trump, like Biden, wanted to withdraw and shares the blame for the failure. National security matters to voters," Bolton said, "so you rightly see conservatives quickly considering options other than Donald Trump."

Newsweek has contacted DeSantis and Trump for comment.