President Donald Trump is still insistent that Jimmy Kimmel should no longer be on late night.
“When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television?” Trump, 79, alleged via his Truth Social platform on Thursday, April 30. “People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
Trump and Kimmel, 58, have gone toe-to-toe throughout the president’s current term in the White House. The comedian recently called Donald’s wife, Melania Trump, an “expectant widow” — just days before an assassination attempt took place at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Both Donald and Melania, 56, subsequently called for ABC to take action against the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” the first lady said in a social media statement on Monday, April 27. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Kimmel, for his part, addressed the Trumps during Monday’s broadcast of his show.
“Sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job. We’ve all been there, right?” he said. “It obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that.”
The comedian continued, “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, but I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.”
Kimmel also apologized for his comments.
“I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room went through that. I really am,” he said on Monday. “Just because no one got killed doesn’t mean it was not traumatic and scary. We should come together and be best.”
Kimmel has a long history of speaking about politics on his late night talk show.
“To me, it just seems obvious and unavoidable, and I just can’t imagine on those nights talking about anything other than what we are talking about,” Kimmel said on Michelle Obama’s “IMO” podcast earlier this month. “I think it would be embarrassing if we didn’t talk about this stuff. It would be shameful. My job — I’ve always said since the very beginning — is to talk about what is going on in people’s lives.”
