Melania Trump pressures ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘widow’ joke
Melania Trump has called on ABC to take action against Jimmy Kimmel following backlash over a joke related to violence at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has responded to calls from the White House for his removal from Disney and ABC by telling First Lady Melania Trump to speak with President Donald Trump about the president’s “violent comments.”
“I agree and think that hateful and violent rhetoric should be rejected,” Kimmel said in a monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on April 27. “And I think the best place to get back on track is to talk about it with my husband.”
Kimmel said the words echoed those the first lady had used at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner days before the shooting when she suggested ABC should fire her for the joke.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is aimed at dividing our country,” Melania Trump said on TV’s “X,” adding, “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s brutal acts at the expense of our communities?”
In a post on Truth Social, which was republished by the official White House account on
Kimmel called the experience “déjà vu.” It’s a nod to the backlash and suspension he faced from his show more than seven months ago after speaking out about the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
What did Jimmy Kimmel say?
The Trumps’ anger stems from a joke Kimmel told on the April 23 episode as part of a segment touted as an “alternative” to the annual media gala.
Standing behind a mock lectern, Kimmel called Trump a “delicate snowflake” as part of the traditional roast performed by comedians at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But the group tapped mentalist Oz Perlman for the first time Trump attended the event while in office.
“Mrs. Trump, you have the glow of a pregnant widow,” Kimmel said on the show.
Kimmel said the comment was a “very light joke” about “their age difference and the look of joy on her face every time they are together.”
He added that he was sorry to those who were in the room for the shooting, including the president and first lady. “Just because no one was killed doesn’t mean it was traumatic and scary,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel talks about viral moment after D.C. shooting
Kimmel hit back at scathing comments made by the White House press secretary earlier in the day by playing a clip of White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt saying “there’s going to be some shots fired” during a dinner red carpet interview.
“If you want people to believe that the joke I told three days before this dinner party had any effect on what happened, maybe someone should look into this psychic woman as well,” Kimmel said of Leavitt.
The segment also touched on high-profile moments from the event, including the evacuation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, the woman who took a bottle of wine from the event, and the evacuation of Michael Glanz, the cool-headed Creative Artists Agency agent who ate a salad.
Perlman was originally scheduled to be a guest on the show, but Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett appeared instead. Late Night Game first reported the guest change.
