Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel responded to calls from the White House for him to be fired by Disney and ABC by telling first lady Melania Trump to speak to President Donald Trump about what he called the president's "violent rhetoric."
"I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it," Kimmel said during his monologue on the April 27 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Kimmel mirrored the language the first lady used when suggesting ABC should axe him over a joke at her expense, he told days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
"Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country," Melania Trump wrote on X. "How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."
The president demanded that Kimmel be dismissed from his role, saying that he "should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC" in a Truth Social post that was republished by the official White House account on X.
