Comedian and TV host Jimmy Kimmel has once again drawn the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, after a joke he made.
Kimmel joked about the first lady being an “expectant widow” before a gunman attempted to assassinate the president during a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday.
In a monologue on Thursday, Kimmel acted as if he were the MC of the upcoming banquet. In one segment, he addressed the first lady and described her as having a “glow like an expectant widow.”
Melania rebukes
In a rare statement, Melania, who is often portrayed by the media as quiet and inclined to stay out of the spotlight, issued a strong rebuke of Kimmel and asked ABC to “take a stand” against the host for his comments, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a post on X, the first lady described Kimmel’s words as “corrosive” and said they “deepen the political sickness within America.”
She also called the TV host a “coward,” saying he was hiding behind ABC “because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”
“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?” she added.
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Trump adds
For his part, Trump also urged Disney and ABC to sack Kimmel.
“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,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” he added.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticised Kimmel, saying: “Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?
“Having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but that.
“This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady, and his supporters is completely deranged, and it’s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night.”
Kimmel retaliates
In a statement on Monday, Kimmel hit back at the first family, saying his joke referred to their age difference.
Trump will turn 80 in June and is the oldest president to take office. Melania, meanwhile, is 56.
“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.”
Past issues between the Trumps and Kimmel
For years, the president and the host have had a strained relationship, as Kimmel frequently criticises and mocks Trump on his show, Al Jazeera reported.
Last year, Kimmel was suspended from his show following pressure from the Trump administration over remarks suggesting that the person who killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk might have been a Republican.
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