Some who watched Sunday night's Academy Awards might have thought they were tuned into a roast of President Donald Trump.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel promised he would use his platform to make political statements and he delivered. During his opening monologue, he admitted that many people asked him to use his job as host to help unite the country. Kimmel, however, said he's not the man to do that.
"There's only one 'Braveheart' in the room," Kimmel said as the camera turned towards Oscar-winner Mel Gibson, who is nominated again this year for his new film "Hacksaw Ridge." "And he's not going to unite us either," he told the audience who laughed.
Kimmel continued by thanks Trump saying, "Remember when last year the Oscars were considered racist?"
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX ENTERTAINMENT NEWS.
He also pointed out what an honor it was for those who get to come up on the Oscars stage and give a speech that the president will "tweet about in all caps during his 5 am bowel movement tomorrow."
The late night host also took a jab at Trump when he introduced Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs saying it's nice to have "a president who believes in both arts and sciences."
Kimmel also highlighted Trump's feud with Meryl Streep who he called "overrated" after she spoke out against him at this year's Golden Globes."
"Meryl Streep has phoned it in for more than 50 films over the course of her lackluster career,” Kimmel joked. “She wasn’t even in a movie this year – we just wrote her name in out of habit.”
(That’s not actually true. Streep is nominated for Best Actress in "Florence Foster Jenkins.")
Kimmel then led the well-heeled crowd in a round of applause for the three-time Oscar winner
“Please join me in giving Meryl Streep a totally undeserved round of applause. The highly overrated Meryl Streep, everyone.”
As a parting shot at the Trump family, Kimmel added. “Nice dress by the way – is that an Ivanka?”
Later on in the show, Kimmel said he was worried that Trump hadn't tweeted at him. So he took out his phone and tweeted at the president.
Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) February 27, 2017
twitter idea for 2017: find real things to be mad about.
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) January 3, 2017