Jimmy Kimmel fired back against Donald and Melania Trump’s calls for ABC to cancel his show after a supposedly inflammatory joke he made in his Thursday monologue, likening the first lady to an “expectant widow.”
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said. “And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
Kimmel added, “But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend.... And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.”
The late-night host told the first lady directly, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
The line drew loud applause from Kimmel’s audience.
Kimmel expressed his condolences to the president, the first lady, and “everyone in that room” for the scary experience they went through, but clarified that he doesn’t believe his comments had anything to do with the assassination attempt.
“If you want us to believe that a joke I made three days before this dinner had any effect on anything that happened,” Kimmel said, “then maybe someone should look into this psychic lady, too...”
He then showed a clip of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt talking about the WHCA dinner hours beforehand, bragging to a reporter that there would be “shots fired” at the event.
Kimmel joked, “You know who’s gonna be furious when she hears that? White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.”
The White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday was interrupted by a shooter attempting to assassinate President Trump.
Shortly after the shooter was apprehended with zero casualties, a joke from Jimmy Kimmel’s Thursday monologue went viral in right-wing social media circles.
Kimmel had given his own spin on the White House Correspondents’ dinner, roasting the Trump administration in lieu of the event no longer having a headlining comedian.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” said Kimmel in his fake WHCD address. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The joke, seemingly intended as a simple reference to the 79-year-old president’s age, was interpreted by many in the MAGA world as an incitement of violence.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” Melania Trump wrote on X on Monday morning.
She continued, “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Melania called Kimmel a “coward,” and urged his network ABC to “take a stand” against his “atrocious behavior.”
On Monday night, the host defended the content of his “expectant widow” joke, clarifying, “It was a pretend roast.”
Kimmel explained that it “obviously was a joke about their age difference, and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
He added, “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”
Trump himself pushed the same argument as his wife on his Truth Social account on Monday.
“Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking,” he wrote.
Trump characterized Kimmel’s one-off joke as a “despicable call to violence” that was “far beyond the pale.” He called for Kimmel to be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
This is not the first time the Trump administration has pushed for Kimmel’s firing. In September, Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air by ABC following MAGA backlash to his comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination.
Trump gloated about Kimmel’s indefinite hiatus when it was first announced, but by Tuesday of the next week, Kimmel was back on air, enjoying a major ratings boost.
“You almost have to feel sorry for him,” Kimmel said about Trump in his returning monologue. “He tried his best to cancel me, instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly.”
