The White House is intensifying its campaign to have Jimmy Kimmel fired, hours after the late-night host declined to apologize for a joke about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X Tuesday that ABC should terminate Kimmel immediately and that he should be shunned for life, labeling him a 'shit human being' for making a 'disgusting joke about assassinating the President.' Cheung criticized Kimmel for 'doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing.' Melania Trump also called for Kimmel's dismissal, writing on X Monday, '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?' She added, 'A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.' She concluded, 'People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.'
The controversy stems from a joke Kimmel made about the first lady's 'expectant widow' glow, which aired days before a gunman breached the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that Trump attended on Saturday. On his Monday show, Kimmel defended the quip as 'a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.' He insisted it was not 'by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that.' While agreeing that hateful rhetoric should be rejected, Kimmel performed an Uno reverse on the first lady, suggesting she 'have a conversation with your husband about it.' He also noted that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had told Fox News ahead of the dinner that there would be 'some shots fired' during Trump’s speech, drawing a parallel to his own comment.
The official White House Rapid Response account slammed Kimmel again Tuesday morning, posting on X alongside a clip of his defense: 'Jim — you are a pathetic has-been (never-was) piece of trash. We all know what you meant.'
