Featured Image Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images
Topics: Jimmy Kimmel, Donald Trump, Melania Trump
Emily Brown
Topics: Jimmy Kimmel, Donald Trump, Melania Trump
Jimmy Kimmel has addressed what he's described as a 'light roast' of the President and First Lady after Donald Trump called for the chat show host to be fired over his remarks.
Kimmel's quip came just days before the tumultuous events of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday (April 25), when a suspected shooter later identified as Cole Tomas Allen stormed past members of security in an attempt to breach the event.
Trump, his wife Melania and Vice President JD Vance were among those quickly evacuated from the dinner, with Allen later being charged with one count of attempt to assassinate the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm & ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Just two days before this attempted shooting, Kimmel made a remark in which he described Melania as an 'expectant widow'.
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On his Jimmy Kimmel Live! show on Thursday, he said: "Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."
The remarks prompted Trump to call for Kimmel's firing in a post on Truth Social, writing: "[T]his is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC."
Melania also criticized Kimmel's comments, writing on X that 'people like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate'.
"His monologue about my family isn't comedy - his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America...," she added. "How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."
In the wake of the backlash, Kimmel addressed his comments on his show last night (April 27).
He claimed the comment was a 'very light roast joke about the fact that [President Trump is] almost 80 and [Melania is] younger than I am'.
Kimmel continued: "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that, I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.
"I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it."
This is far from the first time Kimmel and Trump have come to blows, with the chat show host previously having been taken off air after he made comments about the shooting of Charlie Kirk. At the time, Trump posted: "Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED."
UNILAD has previously approached Disney, which owns ABC, for comment.