WASHINGTON – Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said on April 27 his joke about US first lady Melania Trump had been misconstrued and was not a “call to assassination”.
Kimmel used the opening monologue of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to address comments made on April 23 in a parody segment on the White House correspondents’ dinner.
He said his quip that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow”, referred to the difference is ages of the first lady and her husband, US President Donald Trump.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Trump said Kimmel should immediately be fired by ABC and parent company Walt Disney, joining his wife in calling out Kimmel for remarks made prior to a shooting near a weekend gathering of journalists and politicians.
The Trumps were rushed out of the dinner on April 25 after the shooting in the lobby of the Washington Hilton. A suspect identified as Cole Allen charged through a checkpoint and fired at Secret Service agents, wounding one, before he was subdued and arrested.
Mr Trump has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programmes he dislikes or which have been critical of him, pressing regulators to revoke licences of broadcasters he says are unfair to him.
However, experts say broadcasters have broad First Amendment rights to make jokes, even those that are distasteful. Mrs Melania Trump called Kimmel’s remarks “corrosive” and a symptom of what she described as a political sickness in the US.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said. “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 comedian played a clip of a CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday interview in which Mr Trump called senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell “a disgrace” for reading an excerpt from the alleged gunman’s writings and seeking a response.
The issue poses an early test for Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took the reins in March.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behaviour at the expense of our community,” Mrs Melania Trump said in a post on X. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Mr Trump, who previously called for Kimmel to be removed from the air, said the comedian’s joke was “something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel expressed sympathy for Mrs Melania Trump, and those who attended the event on April 25, for enduring the traumatic incident. But he rejected the notion that a joke, delivered three days earlier, “had any effect on anything that happened”.
Reaction elsewhere to the remarks was mixed.
“Disney and ABC are extremely lucky that Trump wasn’t assassinated on Saturday two days after Jimmy Kimmel made the joke about an ‘expectant widow’,” 57-year-old street vendor Todd Doten on Hollywood Boulevard said.
“If that had happened, there would be a backlash against them the likes (of which) they’ve never seen before.” 64-year-old Dee Thompson from North Carolina said, worried about the free speech risks if Kimmel should lose his job.
“They’re going to take away freedom of speech for a lot of comedians, you know,” Thompson added.
In September 2025, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pressured broadcasters to take Kimmel off the air. ABC briefly suspended Kimmel’s show that month over comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours before the suspension, FCC head Brendan Carr warned that local broadcasters who aired Kimmel could face fines or loss of licences and said: “It’s time for them to step up”.
His comments drew pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians on both stripes, including Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who likened Mr Carr’s threats to those of an organised-crime boss.
Mr Trump, the subject of two prior assassination attempts, has repeatedly attacked the media and threatened broadcast licences. Mr Trump had praised Kimmel’s suspension in September.
In November, Mr Trump criticised an ABC News correspondent for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist and suggested the FCC should move to revoke the broadcast licences of Disney-owned ABC stations. REUTERS