Donald Trump Says He Shouldn't Be President If He's Not More Talented Than Jimmy Kimmel

Donald Trump implied he's resigning the presidency ... well, if he's not a better host than Jimmy Kimmel, that is ... cracking the joke during a Kennedy Center Honors event at the White House.

The President of the United States took another shot at his talk show host nemesis while highlighting the annual award nominees ... including KISS, Sylvester Stallone, and more.

In the clip, Trump -- who is hosting the Kennedy Center Honors tonight, though it won't air on TV until December 23 -- says he assumes the media will tear apart his hosting, no matter how well it goes.

But, he argues, he's seen a ton of terrible hosts over the years ... just take Jimmy Kimmel for example.

Kimmel's never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors -- but he has hosted the Academy Awards four times -- so it seems likely Trump's referring to one of those hosting gigs.

Trump then makes a bold proclamation ... joking, "If I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don't deserve to be president."

As you know ... Trump and Kimmel really don't like each other ... with the former even pushing for the latter's show to be canceled after a comment he made regarding Charlie Kirk's shooter back in September.

More recently, Trump's taken to Truth Social to air his grievances ... calling Kimmel a "talentless bum" in a recent post. Kimmel replied by using the prez's own words against him ... telling him to "quiet, piggy!"

President Trump's personal beef aside, the honorees seemed pleased to be in D.C., celebrating their achievement ... check out our gallery to see all the celebs while they received their medals.