What did Jimmy Kimmel say? Melania joke prompts White House backlash
What did Jimmy Kimmel say? Melania joke prompts White House backlash
James Powel, Brendan Morrow and Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAYTue, April 28, 2026 at 12:54 AM UTC
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Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is again facing furor from The White House, this time for a joke he told on an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" aired days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Kimmel billed a segment during the April 23 episode as an "alternative" to the annual media gala that normally hosts comedians but opted for mentalist Oz Pearlman during President Donald Trump's first appearance while in office.
Kimmel stood behind a faux-podium and called Trump "a delicate snowflake with the thinnest, fat skin of any human being ever."
However, a joke about first lady Melania Trump drew multiple responses from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
"Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow," Kimmel said.
Jimmy Kimmel speaks onstage during the Oscars show at the 98th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 15, 2026.
Two days later, shots rang out at the Washington Hilton and the president and first lady were evacuated from the event. After video of the joke resurfaced in the wake of the shooting, the first lady took to X and suggested ABC should fire Kimmel.
"Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country," she wrote. "How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."
The president echoed the call on Truth Social. "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," Trump wrote in a post that was republished by the official White House account on X.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for ABC and its parent company Disney for comment. The show is set to air at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT but Late Nighter first reported that Pearlman, who had been scheduled to appear, was replaced by "Pod Save America" cohost Jon Lovett.
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1 / 0Trump officials evacuate White House press dinner amid reported shooting
Security officials evacuate U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as a possible shooter opened fire during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2026. President Donald Trump, who was in attendance, said a shooter was apprehended in a social media post.Trump and first lady Melania Trump were evacuated out of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner minutes after it began, as attendees took cover on the floor.
'Are we about to die?': Oz Pearlman recounts press dinner shooting
Kimmel backlash echoes Charlie Kirk outrage
The backlash comes more than seven months after ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel from his show in September 2025 for comments he made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
At the time, Kimmel said that "the MAGA gang" was "desperately trying to characterize" the suspect charged with killing Kirk "as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
Kimmel was suspended after Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, urged ABC to take action, leading to accusations that the suspension was an example of the government censoring free speech.
Reactions to the April 23 segment on the press dinner fell along similar ideological lines, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggesting it was "completely deranged" at a briefing on April 27. "It's unbelievable that the American people are consuming it, night after night after night," she said.
1 / 0Protesters rally in support of Jimmy KimmelPeople participate in a protest, organized by the Writers Guild of America East, against ABC's decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel from his late night show on Sept. 19, 2025 in New York City. ABC suspended Kimmel over comments he made about Charlie Kirk's shooting.
Speech advocates again defended Kimmel, with MoveOn Civic Action Chief Communications Officer Joel Payne saying in a statement to USA TODAY that "any attempt to censor Jimmy Kimmel is a clear violation of free speech and accelerates America’s dangerous slide into authoritarianism."
Carr has not publicly commented on the monologue as of April 27, though FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a statement posted to X that the shooting "must never become a justification for undermining" press freedoms.
"As we have seen after previous acts of political violence, we cannot allow this tragedy to become a pretext for silencing speech, even speech we find objectionable," Gomez wrote.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: See what Jimmy Kimmel said that sparked Trump backlash
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