Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is defending himself against accusations by President Donald Trump that a joke he used during a monologue last week was a “call to violence” ahead that came ahead of a weekend assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Trump and first Lady Melania Trump both issued statements Monday calling on ABC and parent company Disney to fire Kimmel over the joke.
On his show last Thursday, Kimmel delivered a mock monologue as if he were hosting the annual Correspondents’ Dinner. During the bit, he joked that the first lady had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Monday, calling the joke a “despicable call to violence.”
Melania Trump also criticized Kimmel in a statement posted on X, saying the comments about her family crossed the line.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she said.
There has been no response from ABC. But Kimmel personally rejected the criticism from the Trumps during his monologue on Monday night’s show. He said the joke was directed at the age difference between the couple.
“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. And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
Kimmel’s joke last week drew renewed attention following Saturday’s Correspondents’ Dinner, where a Torrance man — 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen — allegedly charged through a security checkpoint at the Washington, D.C., hotel hosting the dinner and attempted to enter the venue with multiple weapons prompting the evacuation of the president, first lady and other attendees. Allen was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate the president, along with a pair of weapons charges.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also condemned Kimmel’s remarks during a briefing Monday.
“Completely deranged,” she said, adding that such rhetoric can contribute to violence.
Kimmel was briefly suspended last September following comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk that drew criticism from the Trump administration.