Melania Trump on Monday urged ABC to take action against Jimmy Kimmel after a Thursday monologue in which he called her an "expectant widow," a demand that was sharpened after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday.
"Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow," Kimmel said in the joke as he parodied the dinner in advance. Melania Trump wrote that the remarks were "hateful and violent" and that "people like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate."
She added: "His monologue about my family isn't comedy - his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America" and asked, "How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community." Donald Trump, who was evacuated from the gala when the shooting began, said he appreciated that so many were "incensed by Kimmel's' remarks" and wrote that "this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC," later describing the incident as "a rather traumatic experience."
Authorities said a gunman opened fire at Saturday's dinner at the Washington Hilton and that the attack may have targeted members of the Trump administration. Hundreds of journalists, officials and public figures were attending. Trump and Melania Trump were evacuated unharmed. The suspect was identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who agents tackled near a staircase leading down to a ballroom where the dinner was taking place.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized Kimmel's remarks at a news conference on Monday, saying: "This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady and his supporters is completely deranged." The criticism has joined calls from the Trumps for ABC and its parent company to act against Kimmel.
The episode reopens questions about how networks police high-profile comedians. Kimmel was taken off air last September after comments about the shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, then returned a week later. After coming back, Kimmel said he accepted that some people felt his remarks about Kirk's death had been "ill-timed or unclear or maybe both," and told viewers, "I get why you're upset."
The contrast is stark: a rapid public outcry that includes the first lady and the president demanding discipline, and a recent precedent in which the network opted for a short removal rather than a long-term dismissal. Melania Trump urged ABC to take a stand; Donald Trump demanded immediate firing; the White House press office called the rhetoric "deranged." The assault at the dinner, and the suggestion it may have targeted administration members, has intensified the political heat around a joke that many now see as more dangerous than merely offensive.
Network leaders must now weigh those demands against the precedent of how similar controversies were handled last year. Given the earlier sequence—Kimmel taken off air last September and reinstated a week later—the most likely immediate outcome, based on past action, is a short, visible punishment rather than the outright dismissal the president has demanded. That pattern frames the central question facing ABC and Disney: Will they break with their prior response, or repeat it?
