Donald and Melania Trump Want ABC to Fire Jimmy Kimmel Over Fake WHCD Bit

There was no comedian present (there was, however, a mentalist) for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but that didn’t stop Jimmy Kimmel from presenting his alternative version of what his WHCD monologue might look like on his Thursday, April 23, show. Sandwiched between jokes about how the president’s skin looked like “Kraft singles” and fake cutaways to Dog the Bounty Hunter, Kimmel roasted First Lady Melania Trump during the bit. “Look at her, so beautiful,” he began, before adding, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Kimmel’s joke was met with an almost even number of laughs and groans, but little did anyone know that two days later at the actual WHCD there would be a shooting that derailed the entire night.

The day after the WHCD, Fox News ran an article about Kimmel’s “widow” joke, noting that the late-night host’s segment aired “shortly” before the real shooting. (Is 48 hours “shortly”? That would maybe require too in depth a discussion on the passage of time.) The First Lady and president were presumably oblivious to the joke at the time of its airing, likely because they were learning how to protect their brains from the mentalist on sight at the WHCD.

But Melania Trump took to X on Monday, April 27, to deride Kimmel’s bit, calling him a “coward” who hides behind ABC. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening,” she wrote, which makes Kimmel sound like a nefarious Santa Claus–esque figure in the television landscape. “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 First Lady went on, though her “community” might just mean people who live at the White House. 

A few hours after Melania posted on X, Donald Trump took to Truth Social, where he once again clamored for Kimmel’s firing after a long-winded explanation of how Kimmel’s bit actually worked: “He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be.” Exactly, Mr. President. Trump went on to add that he appreciated “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,” but if we know one thing about him, it’s that he’s typically pretty responsive to, well, most things.

This is not the first time that the Trumps have waged war against Kimmel. In September 2025, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air for almost a week after there was conservative backlash to comments the host made about Charlie Kirk’s death. Trump then called for Kimmel to be fired next after it was announced that Stephen Colbert’s stint at Late Night would come to a close, but ABC has made no moves to axe Jimmy Kimmel Live! and his current contract with ABC runs through May 2027. Kimmel said he’d go when Trump went, so it looks like we’re maybe still in a stalemate there.

This post has been updated to include the president’s statement.