--- title: Jimmy Kimmel has Pavarotti's Ghost Fact Check Donald Trump description: Donald Trump claims he is "a great friend" of the Italian opera legend who has been dead since 2007 canonical: https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-21T15:52:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:02.255Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel Had Pavarotti's Ghost Fact Check Donald Trump og:description: Trump said he was "a great friend" of the opera legend who passed away in 2007 og:url: https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c502a9b049ef4e4/6988c3f1cd1bba6a2d704d85/kimmelpav.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: KimmelPav og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel Had Pavarotti's Ghost Fact Check Donald Trump twitter:description: Trump said he was "a great friend" of the opera legend who passed away in 2007 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c502a9b049ef4e4/6988c3f1cd1bba6a2d704d85/kimmelpav.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Kimmel Asked Pavarotti’s Ghost if He's Really Trump's 'Great Friend' by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 21, 2017 3:52 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 21, 2017 3:52 PM UTC _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ took a supernatural twist on Thursday night when host Jimmy Kimmel found himself conversing with a ghost to get to the bottom of a news story. The journey into the afterlife came about as a response to a comment that [President Donald Trump made during a news conference](http://time.com/4750178/trump-pavarotti-great-friend-reactions/) with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Thursday. Speaking next to his international peer, President Trump told Gentiloni that the great Italian tenor [Luciano Pavarotti](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753%5F1691759%5F1695076,00.html?iid=sr-link4) was a “friend of mine, great friend of mine.” “That’s an interesting statement to make, because Luciano [Pavarotti](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/02/27/time-cover-celebrity-showbiz/slide/luciano-pavarotti/?iid=sr-link6) has been [dead since 2007](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1659378,00.html?iid=sr-link1),” Kimmel noted, “He’s been dead for 10 years, so it kind of makes you wonder about how deep their friendship is.” To determine the veracity of Trump’s statement, Kimmel went directly to the source. He called on Pavarotti from the afterlife so his ghost could attest to the breadth of his friendship with the U.S. president—[in song](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1659419,00.html?iid=sr-link3), of course. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Asked Pavarotti’s Ghost if He's Really Trump's 'Great Friend'","datePublished":"2017-04-21T15:52:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:02.255Z","description":"Donald Trump claimed he is \"a great friend\" of the opera legend who passed away in 2007","url":"https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Jimmy Kimmel","jimmy kimmel live","Donald Trump","Late Night Television","Late Night Comedy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c502a9b049ef4e4/6988c3f1cd1bba6a2d704d85/kimmelpav.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c502a9b049ef4e4/6988c3f1cd1bba6a2d704d85/kimmelpav.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"KimmelPav","caption":"","creditText":"","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4750233/jimmy-kimmel-on-pavarotti-trump-friend/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Asked Pavarotti’s Ghost if He's Really Trump's 'Great Friend'"}}]}] ```