WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump called Monday for comedian Jimmy Kimmel to be fired for likening First Lady Melania Trump to an "expectant widow," 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 "take a stand" against the late-night host over his comments.

Kimmel made the remarks last Thursday, before the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' 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, "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."

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.

"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 said on his Truth Social platform.

"Disney and ABC should immediately fire Jimmy Kimmel," he said, referring to ABC's parent company Disney.

Hitting out at Kimmel Monday on X, the first lady said Kimmel's "monologue about my family isn't comedy -- his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America."

'Cult of hatred'

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's hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of influencer Charlie Kirk.

"A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," the first lady added on Monday.

"Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."

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.

"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," 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 "systemic demonization" of the 79-year-old president.

"Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump," said Leavitt, who returned from maternity leave to host the briefing at the White House.

"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," she added.

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Trump, Melania slam Kimmel for 'widow' joke