Jimmy Kimmel believes his spat with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania is actually helping bring the couple together.
During his Thursday monologue, Kimmel had given a fake White House Correspondents’ dinner roast in which he described Melania as having the “glow” of an “expectant widow.”
On Monday, both Melania and Trump called for Kimmel’s firing. While Trump has long feuded with the late-night comedian, Melania’s anger at Kimmel took many by surprise. She called Kimmel a “coward” and urged ABC to fire him for his “atrocious behavior.”
The controversy, as Kimmel noted in his Wednesday monologue, provided a rare glimpse of Melania and Trump appearing to be on the same page.
“Our first couple, Donald and Melania,” Kimmel said, “lately have seemed closer than ever, and I like to think I played a part in that.”
As the audience applauded, Kimmel mockingly put his hand to his chest as if he was overcome with emotion.
To showcase Trump and Melania’s supposed newfound closeness, Kimmel showed a clip of the two at the White House state dinner on Wednesday.
In the video, which showed them standing alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla, Melania pulled her hand away from Trump’s. After a few seconds, Trump poked her hand with his pinky. Melania eventually agreed to hold his hand again, although without any apparent enthusiasm.
“Considering the week I’ve had with the first couple, I’m just going to say that is a completely normal way to interact for two people who are very much in love,” Kimmel joked.
He added, “Maybe that’s why his hands are all bruised, from Melania swatting them away.”
Although the last major MAGA backlash to Kimmel’s material resulted in the comedian being taken off the air for a few days last September, this time around it appears to have been less successful.
Not only has the schedule for Jimmy Kimmel Live! stayed intact, but fellow late-night host Jon Stewart believes the controversy has hurt Trump more than it’s hurt Kimmel.
“Donald Trump will make America great again, just not in the way that he intended,” Stewart explained in the latest episode of his podcast, The Weekly Show.
Stewart predicted, “The reaction to [Trump’s] fragility and impulsiveness and incompetence will spur people that you would not expect to rise above the madness.”
