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Jimmy Kimmel responded to the backlash against the “pregnant widow” joke, refusing to apologize for the joke itself and instead mocking the Trump family’s calls to cancel his show.
During his monologue Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel Live! The host took the stage in a black suit and told ABC viewers: “You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding that you be fired from your job? We’ve all been there, right?”
Kimmel briefly explained the history of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and how there used to be a comedian hosting the annual event, but Trump stopped the tradition to avoid being ridiculed. Kimmel explained that on Thursday’s show, he made jokes as if he were hosting the event, and retold his joke: “Of course, our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like a pregnant widow.”
“There wasn’t much reaction to it until this morning, when I greeted the day of another Twitter vomit storm and a call to fire me as the First Lady,” Kimmel said. “It was obviously 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-hearted joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than me. It was not – in any way – a call for assassination. And they know that. I’ve been very outspoken for many years, and have spoken out against gun violence, in particular.”
“But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and every weekend is probably very stressful in that house,” he added. “And also, I agree that hate speech and violence is something we should reject. I agree with that, and I think the best place to start responding to that is to have a conversation with your husband about it. Donald Trump is allowed to say what he wants to say, just like you and I do. Because under the First Amendment, we, as Americans, have the right to free speech.”
However, Kimmel expressed his regret for the traumatic experience that everyone on the WHCD ballroom had. “I’m sorry about that [Melania] “The president and everyone in that room went through that on Saturday — that’s what happened,” he said. “Just because no one was killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t shocking and terrifying, and we have to come together.” We really should. “But if you want us to believe that the joke you told three days before that dinner had any effect on anything that happened, well, maybe someone should look into this spirit lady, too.”
Kimmel then played a clip of White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt saying before the event that “there’s going to be some shots fired tonight.”
These comments come on the heels of Melania Trump and Donald Trump calling on ABC to cancel his show in the wake of a shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
In a twist of fate, the person who was performing on stage during WHCD when the shooting broke out, psychologist Oz Perlman, was scheduled to be a guest on Monday’s show. It was replaced by Pod Save America Host John Lovett.
Earlier Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is by no means funny as his terrible TV ratings attest, made a statement on his show that was truly shocking.” “I appreciate that a lot of people are outraged by Kimmel’s vile call for violence, and normally they wouldn’t respond to anything he said, but this is something that goes way too far. Jimmy Kimmel should be fired immediately by Disney and ABC.”
While Melania Trump, in a rare retreat into the fray of political discourse, wrote, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric aims to divide our country. His monologue about my family is not comedy — his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel should not have the opportunity to enter our homes every evening to spread hate. Kimmel is a coward, hiding behind ABC because he knows the network will continue to act as a cover to protect him. He has had enough.” It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many more times will ABC leadership enable Kimmel’s outrageous behavior at the expense of our community.
The move marks the second time in seven months that Kimmel has had to explain and apologize for a joke that became linked to a political assassination headline. The first was after the killing of Charlie Kirk in September, where a Kimmel joke led to the ABC show being briefly suspended.
ABC did not make any comment on the matter.
Trump has been in a feud with Kimmel since 2016 and has called for the talk show to be canceled several times. While Kimmel has long made mocking Trump a focal point of his monologues. Trump was previously credited — whether correctly or not — with prompting CBS to cancel another late-night critic of his administration, Stephen Colbert, who the Late show Ends next month. Following Colbert’s decision, Trump posted on social media, “I absolutely love that Colbert was fired. His talent was even lower than his ratings. I heard Jimmy Kimmel is next. He has even less talent than Colbert!”
The WHCD shooting marks the third time Trump’s security perimeter has been breached by a gun-wielding man who intended to harm the president during his second term. The first was in July 2024, during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump with a rifle, grazing the president’s ear. The second was in September 2024, when Ryan Wesley Roth was seen carrying a gun at a golf tournament while Trump was playing.
