Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday defended a joke about US First Lady Melania Trump, saying it had been “misconstrued” and was not a “call to assassinate” the US President.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said in his opening monologue. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” he added.
Kimmel’s defence came after President Donald Trump, for the second time, urged ABC and parent company Walt Disney to fire the host, accusing him of inciting violence.
What was the joke?
Days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Kimmel quipped on his show that Melania had “a glow like an expectant widow.” The remark was made during a parody segment in which Kimmel pretended to perform at the dinner.
Melania wrote on X that “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.” Trump called the joke a “despicable call to violence” on Truth Social and said it was “something far beyond the pale.”
Kimmel said he agreed that hateful and violent rhetoric should be rejected and suggested that a good place to start would be “to have a conversation with your husband about it.” He expressed sympathy for Melania and other attendees who endured the traumatic incident but rejected the idea that a joke delivered three days earlier “had any effect on anything that happened.”
How the administration has tried to curtail the media
This is not the first confrontation between Trump and late-night hosts. The president has repeatedly urged networks to drop programs critical of him and has pushed regulators to revoke broadcaster licenses he deems unfair.
In September, the head of the Federal Communications Commission pressured broadcasters to take Kimmel off the air. ABC briefly suspended Kimmel over comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Hours earlier, FCC chair Brendan Carr warned that broadcasters airing Kimmel could face fines or even loss of licenses.
Carr’s remarks drew pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians; Republican Senator Ted Cruz likened the threat to that of an organized crime boss. In November, Trump suggested the FCC should move to revoke licenses of Disney‑owned ABC stations after an ABC News correspondent questioned Saudi Arabia’s crown prince about the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
On Sunday, Trump also lashed out at CBS journalist Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes after she read extracts of a statement claimed to be written by the suspected shooter, which included words like “pedophile” and “rapist” without naming Trump. “You’re a disgrace,” he told her. “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person… You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes.”
Edited by: Alex Berry