Donald and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after a joke last week in which the late-night comic described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”
The remark about the president's wife was part of a routine on Thursday's “Jimmy Kimmel Live” where the host pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. That event two nights later was cut short when a man
armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps and much of the nation's political leadership had gathered.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump said in a social media post later echoed by her husband.
There was no immediate comment from ABC.
Kimmel has long targeted the president in his comedy, and he doubled down after a run-in with the administration last fall. Kimmel was suspended by ABC and some of the network's affiliates said they would take him off the air following a comment made about assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, moves encouraged by Trump's FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. ABC and the stations later brought Kimmel back.
Dressed in a tux and standing behind a podium Thursday, Kimmel pretended to deliver a comic routine for the WHCA dinner. His speech had false “cutaways” to the Trumps and others, taken from video clips.
He noted Melania in the “audience,” saying, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired” by ABC and its parent Walt Disney Co., he said.
His wife said Kimmel's “hateful and violent rhetoric” is intended to divide the country. “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," Melania Trump wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was part of a campaign of rhetoric from Democrats and some in the media that “has helped to legitimize this violence.”
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said. There was no indication that Kimmel was referring to violence.
During his routine, Kimmel noted Melania Trump's birthday Sunday, saying, “She's planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does — looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’”
He also said: “Before we go any further, Melania, this is Donald. Donald, this is Melania. That was my impression of Jeffrey Epstein.”
Cole Tomas Allen, the California man arrested after charged with attempting to rush into the correspondents' dinner on Saturday, was charged with the attempted assassination of the president.
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Associated Press correspondent Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
