Highlights
- Melania Trump demanded ABC “take a stand” against Jimmy Kimmel after his pre-WHCD spoof called her an “expectant widow.”
- The WHCD was disrupted when a suspected shooter opened fire at the Washington Hilton, targeting Trump administration members.
- ABC previously pulled Kimmel from the air in September 2025 over controversial jokes he made after Charlie Kirk’s shooting death.
First Lady Melania Trump has gone on the offensive, publicly demanding that ABC take action — up to and including termination — against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following a pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner spoof that compared her to an “expectant widow.” The statement, posted to X on Monday morning (April 27, 2026), landed with the force of a full-scale media confrontation.
“Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” Trump wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
The firestorm traces back to a Thursday night segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which Kimmel delivered jokes he would have told if he had been asked to host the annual dinner — a slot that this year went to mentalist Oz Pearlman instead of a comedian.
Among the sharpest lines in the set: “Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said in his parody.
He didn’t stop there. The comedian pivoted to the first lady’s April 26 birthday, imagining how she would celebrate. “She’s planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does, looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?'” Kimmel said.
The jokes took on an entirely different dimension days later when a suspected shooter was arrested for opening fire at the WHCD host hotel. Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed that investigators believe the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was targeting members of Trump’s administration.
Melania Trump, who was whisked offstage during the security incident, made an unexpected appearance at the White House briefing room while the president spoke to the press later that night. It marked a rare, high-profile moment for a first lady who has closely managed her public presence in her second term.
By Monday, the gloves were entirely off. “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,” Melania Trump posted on X.
The first lady called Kimmel a “coward” whose “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” adding that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?” she continued.
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.
People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to…
— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 27, 2026A spokesperson for Disney, ABC’s parent company, did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Kimmel himself had also not issued a public statement as of Monday.
Her husband, President Donald Trump, has now, not surprisingly, joined in her call for Kimmel to be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” which has been the home of Jimmy Kimmel Live! since its 2003 premiere.
“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,” he claimed.
This is far from the first time Kimmel’s jokes about the Trumps have ignited a political bonfire. Earlier this month, Kimmel mocked Melania’s public denial of ties to Jeffrey Epstein, joking that she “must really hate” her husband for bringing the story back into the spotlight. He also parodied her documentary, calling it the “world’s first motionless picture” due to its low Rotten Tomatoes score.
The first lady’s statement follows ABC temporarily suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! last September following threats from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr. That incident was tied to a joke Kimmel made after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
When Kimmel returned to the air, he said his joke had been “ill-timed or unclear or maybe both” and added, “I get why you’re upset.”
When he returned to the air on Sept. 23, an emotional Kimmel said it was never his intention “to make light of the murder of a young man.”
Supporters of the late-night host have pointed out that Kimmel was likely joking about the president’s health — not an assassination attempt — and that he couldn’t have known what was going to happen at the WHCD. This seems pretty obvious, but like a true Trump, Melania has gone full-throttle ahead with her “demand.”
Still, the optics are undeniably brutal for Kimmel, and the pressure on ABC’s parent company Disney is mounting. Whether the network will respond to Melania Trump’s call to fire or discipline the host remains to be seen — but with the FCC already circling and the White House watching closely, the stakes could not be higher. Hopefully, freedom of speech still means something to ABC and Disney.
Trump told CBS on Sunday that the shooting had been “a rather traumatic experience” for his wife, and when asked if she had been scared, 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?”
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