Jimmy Kimmel has come under criticism for comments the ABC late night host made in the days before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which was disrupted this weekend by a gunman who fired shots in an attempt to storm past security. But what did Kimmel actually say?
On Thursday, Kimmel spent part of the night’s opening “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” segment roasting this year’s WHCA dinner by doing the jokes he would have told had an actual comedian been tapped to host (mentalist Oz Pearlman was instead booked to lead this year’s festivities instead).
“I thought, ‘Why not take a page from the Kid Rock alternative halftime show and do some of the jokes a comedian might do if our president wasn’t a trembling drama queen who’s scared of comedy?’” Kimmel explained, before launching into the roast. One of the jokes involved an assurance to Trump that, if his ego was bruised by Kimmel’s jokes, “it’ll only make your hands look less disgusting.”
“Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel also joked at one point, just days before a gunman stormed the WHCA dinner.
The latter remark has made Kimmel the target of outrage from multiple MAGA figures, including First Lady Melania Trump. She took to X early Monday to denounce Kimmel’s joke and to demand that ABC fire him.
“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,” Trump wrote on X. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” Trump’s tweet continued. “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’s tweet is just the latest volley in a war between the Trump administration and Kimmel that has been ongoing for months. The feud reached its previous peak last year when outrage from Trump, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and other MAGA figures over comments Kimmel made about the president’s behavior in the wake of the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk resulted in his brief suspension.
Neither Kimmel nor Disney, ABC’s parent company, has publicly responded to the first lady’s remarks yet.
