Melania and Donald Trump call for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over ‘expectant widow’ joke

Washington: US President Donald Trump has called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired after the late-night talk show host remarked that Melania Trump had the glow of an “expectant widow” in a monologue delivered days before an alleged assassination attempt in Washington.

The first lady has also hit back at the comedian, labelling him a “coward” and accusing him of spreading “hate”, and calling on the American broadcaster ABC to take action against him.

“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,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday (US time). “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Trump’s post followed one made by his wife, who wrote on X: “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.

“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.

“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy,” she added, describing it as “hateful and violent rhetoric”.

The Trumps were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night (US time) after a shooting in the lobby of the Washington Hilton, which the White House said was the “third major assassination attempt” against Trump in two years.

Kimmel, in a parody of the annual dinner that aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live two days before the actual event, said: “Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Kimmel also appeared to imply that convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein had introduced Trump and his wife, a claim the first lady denied in a rare address earlier this month.

Disney and the ABC did not immediately comment.

In a press briefing on Monday (US time), White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kimmel had “disgustingly” called the first lady an “expectant widow”.

“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband? And having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but that,” she said.

Leavitt was seated at a long table at the dinner alongside the Trumps when the chaos erupted.

Alleged shooter Cole Allen is accused of sprinting through a security checkpoint and firing at Secret Service agents before he was arrested. One agent was shot in his vest during the crossfire. Allen has been charged with a number of offences including the alleged attempted assassination of the president.

The first lady later appeared alongside her husband as he briefed reporters at the White House after the shooting. He described the incident as “a rather traumatic experience” for her.

Asked during an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes whether his wife had been scared, Trump said: “I don’t want to say, and people don’t like having it said that they were scared, but certainly, I mean, who wouldn’t be when you have a situation like that?”

In September, 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 garnered pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Republican senator Ted Cruz, who likened the threats to that of an organised crime boss.

In September, Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group briefly took Kimmel’s show off the air on their 70 ABC-affiliated stations covering nearly a quarter of US households. Carr wants to make it easier for local broadcasters to pre-empt national programming.

In November, 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 commission should move to revoke the broadcast licences of Disney-owned ABC stations.

with Reuters, Bloomberg

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