“Jeopardy” host Ken Jennings takes shot at Trump ‘regime’ in fiery political posts

Ken Jennings‘ political leanings are no mystery. But the candor with which he evinces them still has the ability to surprise.

The Jeopardy host joined the tide of citizens rising up against Donald Trump‘s presidential administration in the wake of recent controversial events — from the abduction of sitting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a raid that killed as many as 75, to an ICE agent shooting a Minnesota woman, who Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hastily labeled a domestic terrorist.

“The ‘prosecute the former regime at every level’ candidate has my vote in 2028,” Jennings wrote on the social media site Bluesky in a post shared Wednesday. “America is always like ‘ok but the NEXT regime change will work,’ like when I ‘cut out carbs’ briefly every January,'” read another.

In a subsequent post, Jennings noted that it had “been a dark week, but I just saw someone reply to an ‘Abolish ICE’ post with a scoldy Bluesky ‘Uh, try abolish DHS’ and that joy will sustain me for a little while.”

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Entertainment Weekly has reached out to the White House for comment.

Jennings, who became a pop culture sensation after winning more than $2.5 million across a 75-day winning streak on Jeopardy in 2004, took over as permanent host for Alex Trebek after he died in 2020.

He was hand picked by Jeopardy producers to succeed Trebek before his passing, and even got the blessing of the longtime host’s widow, Jean Trebek. But Jennings’ liberal attitude toward the airing of his opinions, regardless of their content, almost cost him the job.

A 2021 Wall Street Journal report found that producers ultimately opted to cycle between guest hosts including Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, and Katie Couric due to a series of resurfaced social media posts from Jennings. “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair,” read one, while another deleted post mocked Trump’s youngest son, Barron, for apparently crying at the sight of Kathy Griffin holding a mock rendering of his father’s decapitated head.

“Sometimes I said dumb things in a dumb way and I want to apologize to people who were (rightfully!) offended,” he said in an eventual apology. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone, but that doesn’t matter: I screwed up.”

But Jennings continues to flame Trump and his administration. In June, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times arguing that the intellectual enrichment offered by Jeopardy could “save our republic,” and pointing out by contrast how Noem “wasn’t even close” when asked during a public hearing days before for the legal definition of habeas corpus.

Jennings even revealed in 2011 that Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid “both called me back personally in 2004 to try to get me to run for Orrin Hatch’s Senate seat.” If Jennings was flattered by their recognition, he didn’t show it, snarking, “That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f—ed in ’04.”

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