First Lady Melania Trump rebuked Disney-owned ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue in which he said Mrs. Trump has “a glow like an expectant widow,” calling Kimmel a “coward,” describing his rhetoric as divisive, and pressing ABC to take action.
Writing on X from the official First Lady account, Melania Trump said: “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 spread hate,” Mrs. Trump said. “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”
Directing her remark at ABC parent company Disney, Mrs. Trump “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 response followed a segment on Kimmel’s Disney-owned ABC late-night show in which he put on a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner roast that included a joke aimed at the first lady. During the segment, Kimmel referenced Melania Trump with the line, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” drawing laughter from the studio audience.
The broadcast aired days before a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., where 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen allegedly charged through a magnetometer and shot a Secret Service agent before being apprehended. Reports said Allen donated $25 to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, earmarked for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. A senior Trump administration official said Allen wrote a manifesto detailing an intention to target Trump administration officials and attended a left-wing No Kings protest, while Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich reported that Allen’s brother alerted authorities after receiving the alleged manifesto.
President Donald Trump later described the suspect as “a sick guy” and said the shooting was “a rather traumatic experience” for the first lady. Video from the event showed Secret Service agents quickly surrounding the president and first lady as shots were heard, with people shouting “Get down!” before they were escorted to safety. The event was subsequently canceled.
Kimmel’s recent comments follow prior backlash tied to his on-air remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In September 2025, he said that Republicans and others were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” referring to the “MAGA gang,” a characterization disputed by officials and case details indicating a left-leaning ideology. The comments prompted broadcast affiliate Nexstar Media Group to preempt his show from its owned and partner ABC stations, with the company stating the remarks were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse” and “do not reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities.”
President Donald Trump on Monday called for Disney and ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after he said First Lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow” in a monologue that preceded a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
ABC said last December it signed Kimmel to a one-year contract extension, before his previous contract was up in May. The deal keeps Kimmel on air as Disney’s late-night comedian until at least May 2027.
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