Country superstar Jelly Roll continues to make things worse for himself following the backlash he received after cracking some rather crude jokes about President Donald Trump while guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!. During a monologue, Jelly makes several fat jokes against the president and claimed the American people are done with him.
Jelly received massive pushback from MAGA supporters, many of whom said they would no longer be listening to his music or attending his live shows. This forced the country singer to address the criticism during another monologue on the show, where he fought back tears and explained where he stands politically.
“Before this week, everybody thought I was MAGA, and now they think I’m some sort of liberal snowflake,” the “Save Me” hitmaker then played a clip from a news anchor that accused him of suffering from “full-blown Trump Derangement Syndrome,” saying he only took the guest hosting gig for the “big check.”
“First of all, I didn’t do this for the check. I’m rich, y’all,” Jelly Roll went on to tell the audience. “And listen, I don’t want to throw my buddy under the bus, but Jimmy Kimmel is cheap as hell.” He then spoke about the criticism he received after expressing support for the UFC fight card at the White House. “Just because I watched a fight on TV doesn’t mean I support everything this administration does,” Jelly said.
“Just like hosting Jimmy Kimmel’s show doesn’t mean I have all of Jimmy Kimmel’s politics. Sure, I lean left on some things, but like most folks, I’m pretty down the middle,” he continued. He then asked if he could get “serious” for a moment, saying, “This year it wasn’t the hosting gig that I was looking forward to. It was the platform to get some very personal stuff off of my chest.”
“For the last six months, I’ve watched people decide who I am, what I am, what I believe, what I support and what I don’t support,” he added, according to TV Insider. “And I felt that even more this week, just because I told a couple of jokes. And honestly, this goes back further for me, y’all. This goes back to February this year.”
The superstar then took a moment to reflect on his viral Grammys speech, where he tap danced around questions concerning his political beliefs. “Looking back, I don’t necessarily regret asking for more time before I spoke,” he explained. “I wish more people took more time before they spoke. But I do wish I had found the words to express my heart just a little bit sooner.”
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“But I was afraid that anything I was going to say was going to be immediately taken as a political statement. And ironically, by trying so hard not to make a political statement, I became one,” he added. Jelly Roll then stated that he’s spent the vast majority of his career not belonging to a political party, mostly because, as a former convicted felon, he wasn’t allowed to vote until March 2026.
He said that he will be casting a ballot in the November midterm elections. “It’s simple for me, y’all. I always wanted the recovering addict, the felon who is trying to change his life, the single mama working a double hard for her family, and everybody else that ever felt forgotten to know that I represent those without representation,” the singer said.
“And speaking for those people is what I believe my calling is. I’ve always tried to be a voice for the voiceless because I know those people. Those are my people. I try to speak for the unspoken,” he continued. And this is the part where the waterworks started. “I had a microphone, and I didn’t use it the right way. But my daddy always told me it is never too late to do the right thing.”
“So, I’m going to try to do the right thing, right now, because human dignity isn’t Republican nor Democrat. Compassion isn’t left-wing and mercy isn’t right-wing. Pain and healing knows no partisanship. Hurting hearts are more important than poll numbers. And there are no boundaries or borders for broken families,” he concluded. Watch him break down below: