Administration

White House reignites war with Kimmel after jokes about Trump’s death

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by Dominick Mastrangelo - 04/28/26 4:36 PM ET

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by Dominick Mastrangelo - 04/28/26 4:36 PM ET

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Jimmy Kimmel is drawing fresh ire from President Trump and the White House, which called for his firing over a joke he told before a man tried to assassinate the president at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday.

Kimmel’s quip that Melania Trump had the “glow” of “an expectant widow,” made during a skit that aired two days before the dinner, was ripped by the president and the first lady, who called it “hateful and violent” while suggesting ABC pull him from its airwaves.

The president hours later argued Kimmel had put forth a “call to violence” and pressured Disney, ABC’s parent company, to fire him.

Kimmel defended himself and the joke during his Monday show, calling it “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,” he said. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular.”

President Trump and Kimmel have long feuded, and the late-night host was briefly suspended last fall amid pressure from White House officials over a joke he made about the response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Critics told The Hill the president’s comments underscore his desire to paint rhetoric from critics as an inherent threat to his safety.

“It’s a pretty easy line to draw. Nobody should harm any of our political leaders, but nobody should be afraid to criticize or questions any of them. Those things don’t stand in contrast,” said Joel Payne, a Democratic political operative and spokesperson for MoveOn. “The group of people in America who want comedians to be able to speak freely without pressure or fear is significantly bigger than the people who want to control what comedians have to say.”

Kimmel returned to the airwaves last fall with an apology over the joke about Kirk. He was suspended after two of the nation’s largest local broadcast networks, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, said they would preempt Kimmel’s program over his jokes. Nexstar Media Group owns The Hill and cable news channel NewsNation.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by Chair Brendan Carr, has for weeks been investigating Disney over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and Carr has previously threatened the sprawling entertainment company’s linear television broadcast licenses.

On Tuesday, the department said it was kicking off an early review of Disney’s broadcast licenses for a handful of stations it owns and operates in major markets across the country.

A filing marking the early review process made no mention of the Kimmel monologue, but critics suggested the timing was not a coincidence.

“Carr is determined to use any tool in his toolkit to go against any news or comedy that is critical of the White House,” said Matthew Conaty, a media attorney and former head of the FCC’s Spectrum Enforcement Division. “His ultimate goal is to redefine what the public interest is … we’re getting so far away from commission precedent.”

Disney, in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday, said it is “confident” the company’s “record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”

“Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate,” the company said.

The president has for years railed against late-night hosts who mock his policies and public statements.

The administration has taken heat during the president’s second term from First Amendment organizations and media watchdogs, who argue his pressure campaign against the likes of Paramount and Disney is intended to influence the news coverage and editorial tone at networks like CBS and ABC.

ABC is also home to a number of other programs that feature hosts and anchors who are frequently critical of President Trump, such as “The View” and the Sunday show “This Week” hosted by former Democratic political operative George Stephanopoulos.

Kimmel has criticized the FCC directly, calling an effort to get him pulled from the air last fall “un-American” and knocking Carr as “unintelligent” once Disney brought him back after his suspension last fall.

Some critics say Kimmel’s latest barb went a step too far.

“Regardless of what happened after the joke, which compounded by what happened, the whole idea of it is a bad idea. Who jokes about someone wishing the first lady become a widow and by inference that the president would be dead?” pollster Mark Penn said.

“His explanation that it was about age differences does not c