WASHINGTON – US First Lady Melania Trump lashed out April 27 at comedian Jimmy Kimmel over a joke likening her to an “expectant widow,” a jibe with eerie resonance after a shooting at a dinner attended by Donald Trump.
Even though Kimmel made the remark in a monologue days ago, right-wing commentators who support Mr Trump have resurrected it to call for the head of the talk show host.
Administration officials say a gunman who tried to storm a media gala dinner with a shotgun the night of April 25 in Washington was apparently targeting Mr Trump and other administration officials.
Security officers subdued the man after an exchange of gunfire.
In the aftermath of the drama, right-wing critics claimed that Democrats criticising Mr Trump were responsible for fueling extremism – even though the president himself has repeatedly broken precedents with violent invective against opponents, the media, the courts and immigrants.
As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.
In his monologue on April 23, Kimmel portrayed himself as the MC of that upcoming banquet, a glitzy yearly event called the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Kimmel’s jokes included one in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said, “Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Mr 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.
Hitting out at Kimmel April 27 on X, the first lady said Kimmel’s “monologue about my family isn’t comedy – his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
Kimmel was briefly suspended from his show on the ABC network last September following government pressure after he said Mr Trump’s hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of MAGA 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 April 27.
“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.” AFP
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