--- description: The host grilled the candidate on Wednesday night title: Kimmel Tells Trump His Muslim Ban Is 'Un-American' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb192b367bf2e25d/698875d00b72e380836e750f/screen-shot-2015-12-17-at-7-41-10-am.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Kimmel Tells Trump His Muslim Ban Is 'Un-American' by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 17, 2015 1:28 PM CUT  ABC by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 17, 2015 1:28 PM CUT In an appearance on _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ Wednesday night, Donald Trump defended his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S. after the host suggested the idea was “un-American and wrong.” “Isn’t it un-American and wrong to discriminate against people based on their religion?” Kimmel asked to applause. “But Jimmy the problem—I’m for it!—but look,” Trump said, “we have people coming into our country who are looking to do tremendous harm.” Trump said some of his Muslim friends called him to support his idea. “Those may have been crank calls,” Kimmel said. Kimmel then asked if Trump believed the idea that his comments could help ISIS recruit Muslims who have become disaffected with the U.S. “I don’t buy that,” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/"},"headline":"Kimmel Tells Trump His Muslim Ban Is 'Un-American'","datePublished":"2015-12-17T13:28:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:27:28.536Z","description":"The host grilled the candidate on Wednesday night","url":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb192b367bf2e25d/698875d00b72e380836e750f/screen-shot-2015-12-17-at-7-41-10-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb192b367bf2e25d/698875d00b72e380836e750f/screen-shot-2015-12-17-at-7-41-10-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 7.41.10 AM","caption":"","creditText":"ABC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/","name":"Kimmel Tells Trump His Muslim Ban Is 'Un-American'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Trump Talk About Restricting Muslims' Entry into the U.S.","description":"Just one of his many opinions on how to deal with terrorism in the U.S.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cBfLYrMA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-08T07:06:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cBfLYrMA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/","duration":"PT18S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4153135/kimmel-tells-trump-his-muslim-ban-is-un-american/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```