Donald Trump Bails on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the Last Minute and Jimmy Kimmel Refuses to Let Him Off the Hook!

"We told him there were cameras here, right?" the late-night host says

Donald Trump left Jimmy Kimmel high and dry Tuesday.

The GOP frontrunner backed out of a previously scheduled appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the last minute. "Due to a political obligation, Mr. Trump is rescheduling his appearance and looks forward to being on the show in the next few weeks," Trump's spokesperson told CNN Money.

Kimmel, who is taping a week of shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, ripped into the politician during the show's opening monologue. "His people called late last night and canceled on us. They were cryptic as to why he canceled. They said he has a major political commitment. But he did want me to relay the message to you that if he had been here, he would have been great. I'm dying to find out what this major political commitment was," the host joked. "Usually, it means he had to go on CNN and call someone an idiot or something."

"Why did he cancel?" he asked. "We told him there were cameras here, right?"

"Are Tuesday nights the nights he volunteers down at the orphanage?"

Trump had previously appeared with two of Kimmel's late-night rivals, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, this fall. "Don't worry," Kimmel assured members of his studio audience. "Tonight, we're going to give everyone in the audience a basketball dipped in cologne, so you can fully experience what it would have been like had Donald Trump been here."

The jokes didn't stop there, of course. "The good part about Donald Trump not being here is we don't have to build a wall around Guillermo tonight," Kimmel said, referring to his security guard and sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez.

If he wants to apologize—and that's a big if—Trump will be able to do so in person. "Unfortunately Mr. Trump now has a political obligation that will prevent him from joining as planned," his spokesperson told Variety Tuesday, "but we have rescheduled to join in-studio in L.A. over the next few weeks."

Meanwhile, fellow guest Jay Z honored his commitment to appear on Tuesday's show. Hov talked up TIDAL ahead of the streaming platform's sponsored concert and gave the entire audience tickets to the show. He and Kimmel even walked the crowd to the Barclays Center themselves.

For more of what to expect from Kimmel's week in Brooklyn, watch the video: