On the evening of October 20, 2025, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! once again found itself at the center of a national debate over satire, free speech, and the boundaries of comedy in American culture. The latest spark? A “Drag Queen Storytime” segment led by drag queen Trixie Mattel, who read excerpts from Eric Trump’s memoir, Under Siege: My Family’s Fight to Save Our Nation, to a group of children—before the show took a sharp, controversial turn.
The segment began innocently enough, with Mattel, resplendent in her signature wigs and makeup, greeting the children and asking, “Do I scare any of you?” The response was immediate and charming. “You just look amazing. Why would that be scary?” one child replied, eliciting laughter from both the studio and those watching at home. Mattel responded warmly, “That is so affirming, thank you so much. You guys look amazing, too.” According to Breitbart News, this back-and-forth set the tone for what initially seemed like a playful, if pointed, bit of television.
Mattel then presented the children with a choice of books, a nod to democratic ideals—“Because this is, after all, a democracy. As of this morning, it’s still a democracy. I’m not sure,” she quipped. The options included titles like Who Cares About Elderly People? and the eyebrow-raising Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich. The children, however, weren’t interested in those selections. When Mattel offered to read a book by President Trump, the kids answered in unison: “No.” Instead, Mattel turned to Eric Trump’s memoir, which she described as being written by Trump’s “least favorite son.”
Reading from the memoir, Mattel quoted a passage lauding Donald Trump: “Donald Trump is certainly unconventional, he’s certainly not politically correct. He also has a heart of gold, and is the greatest father a son or daughter could ever have.” The children, unimpressed, interrupted the reading. One child suggested, “Instead of skipping this page, we should skip the entire book.” Another chimed in, asking if they could “skip the entire story time, and just go straight to lunch.”
It was at this point that the segment veered into more controversial territory. Mattel led the children outside for what she called a “special science experiment.” The experiment? Throwing a copy of Eric Trump’s memoir into a giant wood chipper, turning the book into confetti. “This might not be a great book, but it’s going to make excellent confetti,” Mattel declared. The children watched as the book was destroyed, some giggling, others simply curious.
For some viewers, the segment was just another example of late-night television’s penchant for edgy, satirical humor—poking fun at political figures and, perhaps, the broader culture wars that have gripped the United States in recent years. But for others, it struck a much deeper, more troubling chord. As jonathanturley.org noted, the image of children gleefully participating in the destruction of a book—no matter how comedic the context—evoked disturbing historical parallels. The article drew a direct line to the infamous book burnings of Nazi Germany, suggesting that even in satire, such imagery is fraught with meaning.
“It may be the most bizarre element of the skit, even bordering on the ironically humorous,” wrote the commentator at jonathanturley.org. “After all, Mattel was portraying the Trump Administration as Nazis, but was about to show the children how to destroy books that have views that they do not like.” The piece continued, “That may not bring back memories of collectible Nazi spoons, but it does bring back memories of Nazi book burning. The audience delights as one child says that she would ‘kick’ Donald Trump ‘in the…’ before the show bleeped out the rest of her response.”
It’s not the first time Jimmy Kimmel Live! has faced criticism for its approach to political satire and, more specifically, its use of drag queens in segments aimed at children. In 2023, the show aired a similar bit in which Trixie Mattel read Senator Ted Cruz’s book, Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America, to a young audience. As Breitbart News pointed out, these recurring segments have become a flashpoint for debates about what is appropriate for children and who gets to decide.
But the controversy doesn’t stop at the boundaries of late-night television. The destruction of books—whether physical or symbolic—has become a flashpoint in American culture, with both the political left and right accused of seeking to silence opposing views. The jonathanturley.org piece highlighted this trend, noting that “books by JK Rowling have been burned because of her opposition to certain transgender policies that she views as undermining women’s rights.” The article argued that while “cancel campaigns of conservative speakers were not enough for many on the left,” similar tactics have emerged on the right, with efforts to ban or remove books deemed objectionable.
“It is far easier (and environmentally sound) to ban opposing books than to physically burn them. However, the sentiment is the same. Rather than responding to those who oppose you, you fight to silence them and prevent others from reading them,” the commentary observed. For advocates of free speech, the normalization—or even comedic depiction—of book destruction is deeply unsettling. “There are few more disgraceful images as the burning or destruction of books because you do not agree with the author’s viewpoints. To see children participating in such an exercise is even more troubling,” the writer concluded.
Yet, it’s important to note that the segment, however provocative, remains protected speech under the First Amendment. As the jonathanturley.org article acknowledged, “Even book burning is protected speech.” The question, then, is not one of legality, but of cultural values. What does it say about society when satire blurs the line between humor and historical trauma? And how should parents, educators, and the broader public respond when comedy courts controversy in such vivid ways?
For now, Jimmy Kimmel Live! seems content to push those boundaries, using the language of satire to provoke, entertain, and—perhaps unintentionally—reignite some of the deepest anxieties about censorship, propaganda, and the future of free expression in America. Whether viewers see the segment as a harmless joke or a troubling omen may depend as much on their politics as their sense of humor. But as the confetti settled outside the studio, one thing was clear: the debate over who gets to tell America’s stories—and who gets to destroy them—shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
