Trumps call for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel — again — after morbid joke about first lady

Donald and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after a joke last week in which the late-night comic described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”

The remark about the president's wife was part of a routine on Thursday's “Jimmy Kimmel Live” where the host pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. That event two nights later was cut short when a man armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps and much of the nation's political leadership had gathered.

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump said in a social media post later echoed by her husband.

There was no immediate comment from ABC.

Kimmel has long targeted the president in his comedy, and he doubled down after a run-in with the administration last fall. Kimmel was suspended by ABC and some of the network's affiliates said they would take him off the air following a comment made about assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, moves encouraged by Trump's FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. ABC and the stations later brought Kimmel back.

Upon his return, Kimmel said that by saying that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk,” he was not trying to make light of Kirk's killing and didn't want to leave that impression. He did not apologize, however, and he criticized station owners who took him off the air before later relenting.

Shortly after the incident, ABC signed Kimmel to a one-year contract extension that is due to keep him on the air until May 2027. His show has aired on the network since January 2003.

His late-night competitor Stephen Colbert — another frequent Trump critic — is seeing his CBS show end next month.

Dressed in a tux and standing behind a podium Thursday, Kimmel pretended to deliver a comic routine for the WHCA dinner. His speech had false “cutaways” to the Trumps and others, taken from video clips.

He noted Melania in the “audience,” saying, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired” by ABC and its parent Walt Disney Co., he said.

His wife said Kimmel's “hateful and violent rhetoric” is intended to divide the country. “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," Melania Trump wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was part of a campaign of rhetoric from Democrats and some in the media that “has helped to legitimize this violence.”

“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said. There was no indication that Kimmel was referring to violence.

The National Religious Broadcasters association filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, asking the agency to investigate ABC.

“We're seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn't appear overnight,” said Troy Miller, NRB's president and CEO. “When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable.”

During his routine, Kimmel noted Melania Trump's birthday Sunday, saying, “She's planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does — looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’”

He also said: “Before we go any further, Melania, this is Donald. Donald, this is Melania. That was my impression of Jeffrey Epstein.”

Cole Tomas Allen, the California man arrested after attempting to rush into the correspondents' dinner on Saturday, was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of the president.

Associated Press correspondent Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House after a shooting incident outside the ballroom at at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - First lady Melania Trump speaks to reporters April 9, 2026, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this June 16, 2017, file photo, Jimmy Kimmel attends the 30th annual Scleroderma Foundation Benefit at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department can require journalists to be escorted on Pentagon grounds while the Trump administration appeals a judge's decision to block its enforcement of a press access policy challenged by The New York Times, an appeals court ruled Monday.

The ruling by a divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit isn't the final decision in the newspaper's lawsuit over a new Pentagon press credential policy. But the panel's majority opinion said the administration is likely to succeed in showing that the policy's escort requirement is legally valid.

The panel granted the government's request to suspend an April 9 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who ruled that the Defense Department was violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters.

Circuit Judges Justin Walker, J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia heard the case, with Childs dissenting from the 2-1 majority.

“Reporters can hardly verify sources, gather information, or speak candidly with Department personnel with an escort looming over their shoulders,” Childs wrote.

Friedman found that the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team had tried to evade his March 20 ruling by putting in new rules that expel all reporters from the building unless guided by escorts.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said it welcomes the panel's decision and looks forward to arguing the merits of its “full case” before the same panel. In a statement posted on social media, Parnell said unescorted access to the Pentagon has led to the “regular unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified national defense information.”

“Since implementing the current access policy, the Department has seen a meaningful reduction in these unauthorized disclosures, which when they occur can endanger the lives of service members, intelligence personnel, and our allies,” he wrote.

Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for The Times, said the panel's ruling is “a narrow, preliminary one" and “casts no doubt” on the strength of the newspaper's constitutional arguments.

"We look forward to defending the full scope of the district court’s rulings in The Times’s favor in this appeal,” Boutrous said in a statement.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Walker. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, nominated Garcia and Childs. Friedman was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is joined by Adm. Brad Cooper, left, as he speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)