Both President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have demanded that ABC and its parent company Walt Disney fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, following a joke he made about Melania having "the glow of an expectant widow" — a remark that took on a charged new dimension after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner two days later.

Kimmel made the comment last Thursday during a parody segment on his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", in which he performed a mock version of an MC routine for the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner — a prestigious Washington event where journalists and political figures gather. He described Melania Trump as glowing "like an expectant widow," and also joked about her birthday and her apparent discomfort around the president. On Saturday, the actual dinner was cut short when a man identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a tutor and computer engineer from California, charged through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton and fired at Secret Service agents, wounding one, before being arrested. Allen has since been charged with the attempted assassination of the president.

Kimmel responded on Monday, insisting the joke had been misread. "It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," he said — Kimmel is 58, Melania Trump 56. "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination." He also rejected the idea that a joke made three days before the attack "had any effect on anything that happened," while expressing sympathy for those who endured the traumatic evening. He also turned the criticism back on the president, playing a clip of Trump calling a CBS journalist "a disgrace" and suggesting that if anyone wanted to reduce divisive rhetoric, a conversation with the president might be a good place to start.

Melania Trump had little patience for that framing. "Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country," she wrote on X. "His monologue about my family isn't comedy — his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America." The president echoed her on his Truth Social platform, calling the joke a "despicable call to violence" and demanding Kimmel's immediate dismissal. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt linked the comedian's remarks to a broader media environment she said had helped "legitimise violence," though there is no evidence Kimmel's joke influenced the alleged attacker.

This is not the first time Kimmel has found himself in the crosshairs of the administration. In September 2025, he was briefly suspended by ABC after remarks about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, following pressure from FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who warned broadcasters airing Kimmel could face fines or licence revocations — a threat that drew bipartisan criticism, including from Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Kimmel was later reinstated. Experts note that broadcasters in the United States hold broad First Amendment protections to air comedy, even when distasteful. ABC and Disney had not issued a public response as of Monday. The episode also presents an early test for Disney's new CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took the role last month.