This image released by Disney shows Jimmy Kimmel hosting his late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in Los Angeles on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. RANDY HOLMES / AP
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hit back on Monday, April 27, at Donald Trump's call for him to lose his job over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump days before an attempt to assassinate the US president. Trump said Kimmel should be fired for likening the first lady to an "expectant widow" on Thursday, two days before a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington that the couple attended.
Kimmel portrayed himself in a monologue as the MC of that upcoming banquet. It included a segment in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said: "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow." Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56.
The first lady also lashed out at Kimmel in a rare statement, calling on US broadcaster ABC to "take a stand" against the late-night host over his comments. However, Kimmel brushed off the criticism in a monologue on his talk show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" late on Monday, saying that the gag was "obviously... a joke about their age difference." "It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said. "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that."
