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White House slams Jimmy Kimmel for 'widow' joke about Melania
29 Apr 2026

The White House has slammed Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about US First Lady Melania Trump.

Steven Cheung, the White House's communications director, said, "Jimmy Kimmel is a s--- human being for: #1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President."

"#2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing."

The incident comes after Kimmel's recent "alternative" White House Correspondents's Dinner segment, where he joked that Trump had "a glow like an expectant widow."

The first lady asks 'ABC' to take stand against Kimmel
Controversial joke

Kimmel's joke was aimed at roasting President Donald Trump and his family.

The host said, "Typically, somebody funny shows up" to the annual dinner, but this time, a Mentalist was invited.

However, the first lady responded by asking ABC to "take a stand" against Kimmel for what she called "hateful and violent rhetoric."

On Monday, the President wrote on Truth Social that Kimmel should be "immediately fired by Disney and ABC," which has been airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003.

Kimmel defends his joke in latest monologue
Defense

In response to the backlash, Kimmel defended his joke during his latest monologue.

He insisted that his remarks about Trump couldn't have influenced the events at the actual White House Correspondents's Dinner two days later, where a gunman opened fire.

"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said.

Controversy isn't new for Kimmel
Past incident

This isn't the first time Kimmel has faced controversy.

His show was temporarily pulled from the air in September after he made comments about Charlie Kirk's death in his opening monologue.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to take action against the network over its criticism of the President, but Kimmel returned to the airwaves six days later.