Kimmel Stands Firm Against Trump’s Firing Demands
on Apr 28, 2026
Both The President And First Lady Have Called For Jimmy Kimmel To Be Fired From His Late Night Talkshow
“You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job?” asked Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, on his Monday, April 27, show.
That morning, First Lady Melania Trump posted on X, formerly Twitter, that it was “time for ABC to take a stand” against “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric.”
This was in response to an off-color joke Kimmel made on his show on April 23, two days before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was to be held.
That event went on to be postponed as President Donald Trump, Melania, and other members of the Trump administration were evacuated after a gunman opened fire in the lobby of the venue.
Ultimately, the alleged would-be assassin, identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, was apprehended, and no one was killed.
Two days prior to the Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel staged his own Correspondents’ Dinner comedic roast, with his joke that Melania had the “glow like an expectant widow” not aging well after the third major assassination attempt against President Trump.
This joke led to both Melania and President Trump calling for Kimmel’s termination from his late night host gig on ABC, with White House Press Sec. Karoline Leavitt framing his “expectant widow” remark as being in keeping with rhetoric that goes on to inform acts of violence.
See Melania’s initial call for Kimmel’s termination, here:
Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.
— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 27, 2026
People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to…
Addressing the joke in question on his April 27 show, Kimmel repeated the “expectant widow” crack to laughter from his audience, and then explained, “Which obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
Continuing, Kimmel said, “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”
This year, on June 14 (which happens to be Flag Day), President Trump will turn 80, and Melania just celebrated her 56th birthday on Sunday, April 26.
“It was not, by any stretch of the definition of a call to assassination, and they know that,” Kimmel said. “I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
Responding to Melania’s claim that Kimmel has been using “violent rhetoric,” he stated, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject … and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
He went on to lean on the First Amendment, saying, “I also should point out Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I and as are all of us, because under the First Amendment we have as Americans the right to free speech.”
Kimmel did express he was sorry that Melania and others experienced being at an event that a shooting occurred at, saying it was likely “traumatic and scary,” adding, “We should come together and ‘Be Best.'”
Be Best was, of course, Melania’s big anti-cyberbullying campaign as First Lady during Trump’s first term in office.
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue responding to calls that he be fired, here:
Kimmel Has Been In This Situation Before
Kimmel was previously pulled from the air on Sept. 17, 2025, following the assassination of the Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said back in September.
The removal of Kimmel from the air was seen by some at the time as a First Amendment issue, and he was restored to his position hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! by Sept. 23, 2025.
At the time of the Kirk assassination, Bob Iger was CEO of ABC’s parent company, Disney.
Now, as of six weeks ago, Josh D’Amaro is the CEO of Disney.
This is a developing story.
RELATED: Kimmel’s “Expectant Widow” Joke About First Lady Melania Trump Draws Fierce Backlash
