President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump sharply criticized ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday for on-air comments he made about her days before a gunman opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
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Trump called on the Disney-owned broadcast network to fire Kimmel, a regular subject of the president’s ire.
In a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that aired on Kimmel’s show on Thursday, the late-night comedian said of the first lady: “You have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Trump slammed the skit in a post on Truth Social on Monday, calling it “really shocking,” and drew a direct connection between Kimmel’s comments and the weekend shooting.
“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 wrote in part. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
In a separate post on X, the first lady said Kimmel’s “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.”
Kimmel’s “monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she added. “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.”
The segment aired on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” two days before a gunman opened fire outside the correspondents’ association dinner in Washington. The president, the first lady and other top officials were rushed out of the ballroom.
The suspect wrote in a note to his family that he believed it was his duty to target Trump administration officials.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also addressed Kimmel’s remarks at a briefing Monday, saying in part: “Who in their right minds says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?”
ABC, The Walt Disney Co., and Kimmel’s publicist did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The criticism of Kimmel comes seven months after ABC briefly suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” amid a firestorm over his comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
“The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on his Sept. 15 show.
Investigators had not yet released details about the suspect’s possible motive at the time. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said the suspect grew up in a conservative household in Utah but later became influenced by what he characterized as “leftist ideology.”
The week after Kimmel’s suspension, the comedian returned to the airwaves and delivered an emotional opening monologue. “You understand it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” he said in part, referring to Kirk. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
In early December, Kimmel signed a one-year extension at ABC to continue hosting the network’s flagship late-night talk show, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The first lady has grown increasingly concerned about security measures in recent years, according to a source close to her. She can be seen asking specific questions about the inaugural parade route in the documentary “Melania.”
“Is it safe? Because if we go out, I think people will already know where we would go out,” the first lady says in the film. “So it’s kind of like, how could that be safe, especially with the last year, what’s going on and stuff?”
In remarks that aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, the president praised his wife’s composure during the weekend shooting.
“Well, my thought was, you know, I’ve been through this before a couple of times, and she has not, to this extent,” he said. “She handled it great. I mean, she was, she is very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening.”
The first lady was not present when a gunman attempted to assassinate her husband at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The same was true when another gunman attempted to assassinate him later that year outside his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
