The American comedian Jimmy Kimmel has responded to the calls for his dismissal made by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the First Lady, Melania Trump, after, in a parody of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, he referred to Melania as "future widow" a few days before the official dinner was interrupted by an armed attack.
As he kicked off his Monday show, Kimmel joked about the situation: "You know when you sometimes wake up in the morning and the First Lady releases a statement demanding that you get fired from your job? It's happened to all of us, right?". He then explained that the "future widow" comment was "a joke about the age difference between the two of them and the look of happiness that we see on her face" whenever Melania Trump, 56, appears next to her husband, 79.
The presenter defended that "it was a very mild joke typical of a satire about the fact that he is almost 80 years old and she is younger than me" and stressed that "it was not, under any possible definition, a call to murder". Faced with accusations from the Trump couple, who linked the gag to the armed attack, Kimmel recalled that "and they know it, I have been speaking out very clearly against gun violence for many years".
"I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend," he admitted, before launching a new jab at the presidential entourage by pointing out that "probably every weekend is quite stressful in that house." Later he assured: "I agree with [Melania] that we should reject hateful and violent rhetoric," although he took the opportunity to return the criticism to Donald Trump by pointing out that "a great starting point for reducing it would be to have a conversation with her husband about it."
Trump links the joke to the assassination attempt
Kimmel's reaction comes after a message published by Donald Trump on Truth Social, in which he demanded Disney and ABC immediately dismiss the comedian. "Jimmy Kimmel, who is not funny at all, as his terrible ratings attest, made a statement on his show that is truly shocking," the president wrote, also accusing him of having "showed a fake video of the First Lady and our son as if they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him talk, when they were not and never would be."
In that text, Trump links the presenter's joke with the incident that occurred two days later during the White House Correspondents' Dinner. "One day later, a lunatic tried to enter the White House Correspondents' Dinner ballroom, armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and many knives," he stated, referring to the individual detained at a security checkpoint before accessing the main ballroom. The president maintained that "he was there for a very obvious and sinister reason" and celebrated that "so many people are outraged by Kimmel's despicable call for violence, who should be fired immediately by Disney and ABC."
Hours earlier, Melania Trump had released her own statement, in which she accused the presenter of contributing to political polarization in the United States. "Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric aims to divide our country. His monologue about my family is not comedy, his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within the United States," she stated, arguing that "people like Kimmel should not have the opportunity to enter our homes every night to spread hate."
The first lady concluded her message with harsh words against the comedian and the network: "Coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will continue to cover his back to protect him. Enough is enough. It's time for ABC to take action. How many times will ABC management allow Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?"
The controversy was amplified by the attack registered during the Correspondents' Dinner, which Donald and Melania Trump attended along with senior officials of the Administration. The event was halted when an armed man attempted to access the event area, being subdued by security services before entering the main hall. The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, was subsequently formally charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, in addition to other federal charges.