Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has enraged the Trump family, again. Now, they’re calling upon his network to fire him.
After a shooter interrupted the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, inflammatory jokes from Kimmel’s Thursday night parody of the event have caught the attention of the president and his wife.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” Kimmel, 58, said in his fake WHCD address, cutting to footage of Melania and Baron Trump from a separate event. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Unbeknownst to Kimmel, the president and first lady’s lives would be in jeopardy just two days after the remark. The joke has inflamed the presidential pair as well as right-wing media.
Earlier on Monday, First Lady Melania Trump, 56, blamed Kimmel, whom she called a “coward,” for the assassination attempt, and called out ABC to fire him.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community,” she wrote in a post on X.
Donald Trump, 79, followed suit shortly after.
“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. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” he wrote in an extensive Truth Social post.
Kimmel went on to ridicule Trump for avoiding a roast at the dinner by hiring mentalist and author Oz Pearlman as the headlining entertainer rather than a comedian, as is customary.
“Our president is a delicate snowflake with the thinnest fat skin of any human being ever, and that means there’s going to be no comedian this year,” Kimmel said during his nine-minute roast.
“By the way, before we go any further: Melania, this is Donald. Donald, this is Melania,” Kimmel joked. “That was my impression of Jeffrey Epstein.”
Kimmel was suspended for six days by ABC in September following threats by Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr. The host made jokes about Charlie Kirk’s assassination that incensed MAGA. Carr, 47, then threatened to pull the network’s local broadcasting rights, resulting in the suspension.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump cheered in a late-night post.
Seven months after the suspension, Jimmy Kimmel Live! remains the most-watched late-night show on TV. In December, ABC renewed Kimmel’s contract, keeping the host on TV through the end of 2027.
Earlier in April, Kimmel highlighted the hypocrisy of MAGA defending Trump’s right to make offensive “jokes.” After Trump posted an AI-generated picture of himself as Jesus, Vice President JD Vance, 41, defended the post by saying it was just a “joke.”
“He was posting a joke, you understand?" Kimmel said, mocking Vance’s tone. “Why did I get kicked off the air again? I can’t remember.”
Kimmel has offered no apologies for his joke about the MAGA fallout to Kirk’s assassination since it aired. All eyes will be on his Monday night monologue to see if he will do the same this time around.
