President Trump on Monday called for late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired after he made a comment about first lady Melania Trump being an “expectant widow” just days before a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in an apparent assassination attempt.
In parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that aired Thursday night, saying of Mrs. Trump: “You have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Mr. Trump railed against the comment on Truth Social, drawing a direct connection between Mr. Kimmel’s comment and the weekend shooting. He called for ABC and its parent company, Disney, to fire him.
“Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible television ratings, made a statement on his show that is really shocking,” Mr. Trump said of the sketch. “A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason.
“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,” Mr. Trump continued.
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” the president wrote.
A spokesperson for ABC did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mr. Trump’s comments echoed the first lady’s social media post earlier Monday in which she called the comments “hateful and violent.”
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
She urged ABC to take “a stand” against Mr. Kimmel.
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” Mrs. Trump continued. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?”
The shooting suspect wrote in a manifesto that he experienced “rage” over numerous Trump administration policies.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also addressed Mr. Kimmel’s remarks at the top of her press briefing on Monday.
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?”
The criticism of Mr. Kimmel comes seven months after ABC briefly suspended his show amid a firestorm over his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Mr. Kimmel falsely said the alleged assassin was MAGA and accused Trump supporters of exploiting Kirk’s death to “score political points.” Authorities later said the suspect was influenced by a “leftist ideology.”
The week after Mr. Kimmel’s suspension, he returned to the airwaves and delivered an emotional opening monologue saying it was “never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”
“I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” he said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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