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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by ABC and parent company Walt Disney, joining his wife Melania Trump in calling out the late-night talk show host for a monologue he delivered prior to a shooting that took place over the weekend near a gathering of journalists and politicians.
Last Thursday, in a segment that parodied the upcoming White House correspondents’ dinner, Kimmel said that Melania Trump “had a glow like an expectant widow.”
Trump and the first lady were rushed out of the dinner on Saturday after a shooting in the lobby of the Washington Hilton where the event was taking place.
A suspect identified as Cole Allen charged through a checkpoint and fired at Secret Service agents, wounding one, before he was subdued and arrested.
Trump has repeatedly urged broadcasters to remove comedy or news programs he dislikes or that have been critical of him, and has pressed regulators to take action to revoke the licences of broadcasters he says treat him unfairly.
Broadcasters have broad First Amendment rights to make jokes — even ones that are distasteful, experts note. But late last year, Trump and Kimmel seemed similarly in opposition after the former publicly celebrated when Kimmel’s show was temporarily removed from the air after the host joked about the alleged shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
U.S. President Donald Trump, when asked during a news conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer about a move by ABC to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the air, said the talk show host said ‘a horrible thing’ about Charlie Kirk — but attributed the decision to Kimmel’s ‘bad ratings’ and ‘lack of talent.’
“We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and with everything they can, to score political points from it,” Kimmel said in his Sept. 15 monologue.
The next day, FCC chair Brendan Carr decried Kimmel’s words as “appearing to directly mislead the American public” about the alleged shooter’s political affiliations.
While warning that local broadcasters who aired Kimmel could face fines or loss of licences, he stated they “can do this the easy way or the hard way” hinting that the FCC had “remedies that [they] can look at” in dealing with Kimmel.
After the regulator’s comments, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast group — which collectively owned about a quarter of ABC affiliates — ceased broadcasting Kimmel’s show, with the latter issuing a statement thanking Carr.
Carr approved Nexstar’s $3.5 billion US acquisition of Tegna, but a U.S. judge has put the merger on hold.
Soon after, ABC issued a statement of its own saying it would indefinitely pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live! — a decision that was reversed about a week later after a series of discussions between Kimmel and Disney.
Jimmy Kimmel aimed his barbs at U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration in his return to late-night television after being suspended. He also paid tribute to the widow of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
In the interim, stars including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish and Ben Stiller signed a letter circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union that called ABC’s removal of Kimmel’s show a “dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
Former U.S. President Barack Obama wrote on social media that the current administration had reached a “new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
There were protests outside of ABC and Disney studios, while U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren characterized Carr’s statements as a form of federal interference.
She also compared Disney’s decision to pull Kimmel with Paramount cancelling Stephen Colbert’s CBS late-night show — a decision that came shortly after Colbert criticized Paramount for settling a defamation case with Trump. Paramount said it made the move for purely financial reasons.
Kimmel’s return episode garnered 6.26 million broadcast viewers, according to a news release from Disney and ABC Entertainment, despite not airing in 23 per cent of U.S. TV households. And his opening monologue from the night pulled in over 20 million views on YouTube, breaking the host’s all-time viewership record on the platform.
In that monologue, Kimmel apologized for his prior words, which he said, to some, “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”
Shortly before that episode aired, Trump mused on his Truth Social platform that he might sue ABC over Kimmel’s reinstatement.
“Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million,” he wrote, citing a settlement the studio payed toward Trump’s presidential library over a defamation case. “This one sounds even more lucrative.”
Melania, Donald Trump respond
Kimmel’s recent joke seems to have incited similar recriminations from the White House. Earlier on Monday, Melania Trump called Kimmel’s remarks “corrosive.”
Neither ABC nor Disney immediately responded to requests for comment.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behaviour at the expense of our community,” Melania Trump said in a post on X. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she said. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
The president, meanwhile, said the comedian’s joke was “something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
