WASHINGTON: Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hit back on Monday at Donald Trump&#39;s call for him to lose his job over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump days before an alleged attempt to assassinate the US president. Trump said Kimmel should be fired for likening the first lady to an &quot;expectant widow&quot; on Thursday, two days before a shooting at the White House Correspondents&#39; Dinner in Washington that the couple attended. Kimmel portrayed himself in a monologue as the MC of that upcoming banquet. It included a segment in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said: &quot;Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.&quot; Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56. The first lady also lashed out at Kimmel in a rare statement, calling on US broadcaster ABC to &quot;take a stand&quot; against the late-night host over his comments. However, Kimmel brushed off the criticism in a monologue on his talk show, &quot;Jimmy Kimmel Live!&quot; late on Monday, saying that the gag was &quot;obviously... a joke about their age difference.&quot; &quot;It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he&#39;s almost 80 and she&#39;s younger than I am,&quot; Kimmel said. &quot;It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that.&quot; Kimmel also appeared to invite Trump onto his show to discuss &quot;hateful&quot; rhetoric -- an apparent reference to the president&#39;s inflammatory comments about groups including migrants, political opponents and the media. &quot;I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,&quot; Kimmel said. &quot;I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,&quot; he added, addressing the first lady. The president had earlier accused Kimmel in a Truth Social post of a &quot;despicable call to violence&quot; and said he should &quot;be immediately fired.&quot; As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech. He was briefly suspended from his show last September following government pressure after he said Trump&#39;s hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of influencer Charlie Kirk.&nbsp;

US television host Jimmy Kimmel arrives for "An Evening With Jimmy Kimmel" at the Roosevelt hotel in Hollywood on August 7, 2019. (AFP)

Entertainment

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hit back on Monday at Donald Trump's call for him to lose his job over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump, days before an alleged attempt to assassinate the US president. 

Comedian Kimmel hits back at criticism over Melania Trump joke

Web Desk

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump called Monday for comedian Jimmy Kimmel to be fired for likening First Lady Melania Trump to an &quot;expectant widow,&quot; in a joke made days before a third alleged attempt to assassinate Trump. Melania Trump herself had earlier lashed out at Kimmel in a rare statement, calling on US broadcaster ABC to &quot;take a stand&quot; against the late-night host over his comments. Kimmel made the remarks last Thursday, before the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/what-we-know-about-the-trump-press-gala-shooting" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">shooting incident</a> at the White House Correspondents&#39; Dinner in Washington on Saturday, which Trump attended. In a monologue, Kimmel portrayed himself as the MC of that upcoming banquet. It included a segment in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said, &quot;Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.&quot; Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president ever to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56. &quot;I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel&#39;s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,&quot; Trump said on his Truth Social platform. &quot;Disney and ABC should immediately fire <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-defends-free-speech-as-he-returns-to-latenight-television-from-suspension" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jimmy Kimmel</a>,&quot; he said, referring to ABC&#39;s parent company Disney. Hitting out at Kimmel Monday on X, the first lady said Kimmel&#39;s &quot;monologue about my family isn&#39;t comedy -- his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America.&quot; &#39;Cult of hatred&#39;As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech. Kimmel was briefly suspended from his show on the ABC network last September following government pressure after he said Trump&#39;s hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of influencer Charlie Kirk. &quot;A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,&quot; the first lady added on Monday. &quot;Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC&#39;s leadership enable Kimmel&#39;s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.&quot; While Trump took a rare conciliatory tone towards the media in a press conference after the gala shooting, the White House has since hardened its stance. &quot;The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend,&quot; Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing. Trump himself has pushed the barriers of presidential precedent in terms of using language towards political opponents that critics say is polarizing and sometimes violent. But Leavitt, who was on stage with Trump at the dinner when the incident happened, said there had been &quot;systemic demonization&quot; of the 79-year-old president. &quot;Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump,&quot; said Leavitt, who returned from maternity leave to host the briefing at the White House. &quot;Those who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence,&quot; she added.

US television host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel speaks during the Recording Academy and Clive Davis' Salute To Industry Icons 50th Anniversary pre-Grammy gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on February 1, 2025. (File photo: AFP)

Americas

Kimmel is under fire for his remarks that came on Thursday, before the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington on Saturday.

Trump, Melania slam Kimmel for 'widow' joke

ISLAMABAD: For a woman who clerked for a US Supreme Court Chief Justice, argued cases at one of America&#39;s top law firms, and graduated from Yale Law School, Usha Vance has spent a surprising amount of the last year being discussed as if she were a decorative part of her husband&#39;s political career. On Tuesday, with the calm efficiency of someone who has cross-examined tougher rooms, she set the record straight.&nbsp; In a sit-down with NBC News, the Second Lady confirmed what her CV had been quietly suggesting all along: she has opinions, they are her own, and they do not always match those of Vice President JD Vance. &ldquo;Groundbreaking stuff,&rdquo; as reported by The Telegraph. She told NBC that some of her views fit neatly into one side of the political spectrum, while others were &quot;way more idiosyncratic,&quot; according to the interview. There was, she noted with the serenity of someone entirely unbothered, &quot;no expectation&quot; the two would &quot;see eye to eye on everything.&quot; When they disagreed, she said, it was &quot;always very productive.&quot; One can only imagine. On whether anyone had pressurized her to think more like her husband, she was succinct. &quot;I was myself in 2014. I can be myself today.&quot; Case closed. No further questions. The interview was not random. It arrives after a year in which the Vance marriage became Washington&#39;s most reliably dramatic subplot. It kicked off in late 2024 when Vance was photographed in what critics generously described as an enthusiastic embrace with Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, at a Turning Point USA event, as reported by CNN. The internet filed its theories accordingly. Matters were not helped in November 2025 when Usha turned up to a public event, alongside First Lady Melania Trump, no less, without her wedding ring. The White House handled this with some asperity, explaining that she was a busy mother of three who simply &quot;forgets her ring sometimes,&quot; according to The Telegraph. Vance went on CNN in December to confirm the marriage was &quot;as strong as it&#39;s ever been.&quot; The audience noted his wife was not present for the announcement. Religion, meanwhile, had been doing its own work. At a Turning Point USA event, JD Vance publicly shared his hope that his Hindu wife would eventually convert to Christianity. He defended the comment on X, then deleted the post. Far-right US figures, apparently inspired, began targeting Usha&#39;s Indian heritage directly. Vance issued a furious public defense of his wife, according to the BBC, a defense that required him to denounce the very online ecosystem he had spent years carefully nurturing. The irony was not lost on observers. Neither was this: in March 2025, JD Vance told a crowd in Michigan that because cameras were on, Usha &quot;has to smile and laugh and celebrate&quot; whatever he said, &quot;no matter how crazy,&quot; according to The New York Times. The remark was called sexist by critics. The Vances declined to respond. Usha smiled. She was, it now appears, composing her NBC statement. A registered Democrat until 2014, Usha switched to the Republican Party in 2022 when Vance ran for a US Senate seat in Ohio, according to The Telegraph. She is expecting the couple&#39;s fourth child and will be the first Second Lady to give birth in office since 1870. Netizens spent a year wondering what Usha Vance really thought. On Tuesday, she told them. It was, by all accounts, &quot;very productive.&rdquo;

US Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance exit Air Force Two at Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township, Michigan, on March 18, 2026. (AFP)

Viral

The Yale-trained lawyer went viral after telling NBC News her opinions are her own, pushing back on speculation and proving she’s more than just a 'political spouse.'

Articles tagged with "Melania Trump"

Comedian Kimmel hits back at criticism over Melania Trump joke

Trump, Melania slam Kimmel for 'widow' joke

Usha Vance: The US Second Lady who can smile, wave – and speak her mind