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Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump may have a tenuous understanding of how the Internet works, but the former reality-TV star fully grasps the power of network television.
Fresh off his debate appearance in Las Vegas, Trump swung through Los Angeles for a late-night appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” where he fended occasionally tough questions about his immigration policy and his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S. in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.
The late-night host gently lampooned Trump’s remarks about undermining the Islamic State’s recruitment efforts on the Internet during the CNN debate, when the candidate declared, “We should be able to penetrate the Internet and find out exactly where ISIS is and everything about ISIS.”
“I don’t know how often Donald Trump goes on the Internet,” Kimmel deadpanned during his opening monologue. “But it seems to me there’s a lot of penetration there already.”
Kimmel briefly flicked at the other Republican presidential aspirants and found a bit of levity in the debate barbs exchanged by Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
“I’ll tell you what, these free-style rap battles are getting a lot whiter since the ’90s,” Kimmel quipped.
Trump took the stage and immediately began trumpeting the debate ratings — noting that CNN drew an estimated 18 million viewers, making it the third-most-watched in history.
“Something happened this cycle,” said Trump, his tone bordering on smug. “Fox had 24 million people. CNN had the biggest audience in the history of CNN.”
Trump allowed that he was nicer to his GOP opponents in the most recent debate in Vegas, saying it’s time for the Republican party to come together.
“I’ve been a little bit divisive in the sense of hitting people hard,” Trump allowed.
Trump called on some presidential hopefuls to bow out of the race, noting that candidates like former New York Gov. George Pataki are barely showing up in polls of likely GOP primary voters.
“They have nothing going,” Trump said. “At a certain point, you have to get out.”
Kimmel pressed Trump on some of his more controversial policy statements, including one in which he pledged to deport immigrants living in the U.S. without legal documentation. The comedian said his own foil, Guillermo Rodriguez, came to America illegally, before obtaining proper documentation.
“Don’t we want people who want to be here so badly they’ll risk everything to be in America?” Kimmel asked, drawing applause from the studio audience.
Trump called Latinos “unbelievable people,” saying he has employed thousands over the years.
“I’m saying they have to come in through a legal process,” Trump said. “We’re going to build a big, beautiful door. We want people to come in, we want people to come in legally.”
Kimmel pressed Trump on his widely criticized call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S. in the wake of the mass killings in Paris and San Bernardino.
“Isn’t it un-American and wrong to discriminate against people, based on their religion?” Kimmel asked.
“We have people coming into our country who are looking to do tremendous harm,” Trump said. “Look at Paris. These people did not come from Sweden.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
