Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump for trans mice claim: ‘Are they so dumb they don’t know how to Google?’

US TV host Jimmy Kimmel has roasted Donald Trump for his “dumb” claim about transgender mice. 

Kimmel, who was overtly overwhelmed with emotion when discussing Trump’s presidential election win at the end of last year, has spoke out about the bizarre transgender mice comment that Trump made earlier this week.

During an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday (4 March), Trump claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency had found $8 million (£6.2 million) set aside by Joe Biden’s administration to make mice transgender.

Despite the White House repeating Trump’s claim in a follow-up press release, CNN fact-checkers disputed it. The publication’s team confirmed that the White House had indeed provided a list of $8.3 million in federal grants for health studies involving mice receiving treatments that can be used in gender-affirming health care. 

However, they stated that the White House’s list made clear what Trump did not in his speech: “The studies were meant to determine how these treatments might affect the health of humans who take them, not for the purpose of making mice transgender,” the fact-checkers determined.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday (5 March) the host sided with CNN, stating, “It’s not real,” in response to Trump’s claim.

Kimmel continued: “The government spent money on transgenic mice, which are genetically modified mice they use in lab tests to study disease. It has nothing to do with being transgender.”

A transgenic mouse is one that has had its genome altered for the purpose of studying gene functions, and for genetic engineering tests.

Kimmel questioned: “Other than the word, the ‘trans’ part of the word. You think they know this and just ignore it, or are they so dumb they don’t know how to Google? Or maybe they think we’re so dumb we don’t know how to Google? I don’t know.”

During his address to Congress, Trump also hit out at what he described as: “$8m to promote LGBT+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.”

In response, the main LGBTQ+ rights organisation in the Southern African country released a statement stating that Trump’s claim was baseless. The People’s Matrix told AFP: “We are literally not receiving grants from the US. 

“We have no idea of the allocation of eight million dollars. We do not know who received or is going to receive that money.

“We do not have such moneys or a contract that would even reach a quarter of half of that money.” 

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