Did Travis Kelce or other celebrities make a public statement that Jimmy Kimmel should leave America? No, that's not true: This is a made-up story which has been repeated using the same formula with many different famous names. At least nine variations of this story have been published on Facebook by pages originating overseas -- none of them are true.
One example of this attention-grabbing theme is a post (archived here) published by the Facebook page Chiefs Kingdom on Sept. 21, 2025. It opened:
BREAKING NEWS: The wave of controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel after his inappropriate comments about those commemorating Charlie Kirk has not yet subsided, but recently, Chiefs star Travis Kelce has made public opinion even more agitated. In an interview, he bluntly criticized Kimmel: "He has crossed the line. With such offensive words, Jimmy Kimmel should leave America. We don't need a fake 'bad boy' on television."
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=122157342098619899&id=61568596982724)
The image included with the post has a "breaking news" banners along with a text caption which reads:
I'm so tired of him preaching morality, there have been too many inappropriate statements, it's best he leave America...
The first comment under the post contains a link to the website sportvictoryarena.com (archived here).
Lead Stories used a portion of the post caption and Facebook's search function to uncover nine additional posts (pictured below). These have virtually identical post captions and link to websites such as, booknest.org, vtus.livextop.com, hot.hotnews247.us, tenderpath.net, and medianews48.com. Each post includes two photos, one showing Jimmy Kimmel and the other showing the celebrity named. These posts are each published by a Facebook page with a theme coinciding with the pictured celebrity. For example, a page called "Blond Country Queen" published a post about Dolly Parton, while the page called "Penn Gridiron Glory" published a post about Penn State head coach James Franklin. Seven of these posts picture the "best he leave America" caption as attributed to Travis Kelce by the page "Chiefs Kingdom".
(Image Source: Lead Stories composite image with screenshots from Facebook.com/search)
The primary country of Facebook page managers may be found in the page transparency report. Of the pages which do reveal their page managers, all list countries overseas, and sometimes more than one. Only Penn Gridiron Glory listed a page manager from the United States, but also had seven page managers in Vietnam, and one in the Philippines. Other countries identified were; Pakistan, Argentina, and Brazil.
Other celebrity names included in this clickbait formula along with Jimmy Kimmel were Travis Kelce; Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt, Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Dak Prescott, Louisiana State University Tigers' Head Coach Brian Kelly, Penn State head coach James Franklin, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian, Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark, singer Dolly Parton, and Dancing With the Stars' Derek Hough.
An advanced search (archived here) with Google using the quoted text and the name Jimmy Kimmel did not turn up any legitimate reporting showing that any of these celebrities ever said that it's best he leave America.
