Jimmy Kimmel used his Monday night monologue on ABC to defend a joke in which he said first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow,” arguing it was a crack about the Trumps’ age difference rather than a call for violence. The remark drew condemnation from Melania Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as authorities investigated a shooting and attempted breach near the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at Washington’s Hilton hotel over the weekend.
Jimmy Kimmel addressed criticism on Monday’s episode of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after a joke from a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner segment he performed late last week resurfaced amid heightened security concerns.
In his on-air response Monday night, Kimmel repeated the line that drew the backlash:
“Our first lady Melania’s here, look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Kimmel said the comment was meant as a “light roast” about the couple’s age difference—pointing to President Donald Trump being “almost 80”—and said it was “not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.” He added that he did not see a major public response until Monday morning, when he said he was hit with a wave of criticism online and calls for his firing.
Melania Trump, in a post on X on Monday, condemned the joke as harmful and urged ABC to take action. In the post, she described Kimmel’s comments as “hateful and violent rhetoric” and argued that “his monologue about my family isn’t comedy,” calling on the network to “take a stand.”
The dispute unfolded as law enforcement investigated a violent incident outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. Federal authorities have identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. The Justice Department has said Allen is charged in connection with an alleged attempt to assassinate the president.
Accounts of the chaos outside the ballroom generally agree that Allen tried to breach a security perimeter while armed and that a Secret Service agent was injured, with Trump and other officials evacuated safely. However, early reporting on exactly how the agent was hurt has been less consistent, with some outlets describing the agent as being shot in a ballistic vest while other reporting has raised uncertainty about who fired the round that struck the vest. No deaths were reported.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized Kimmel’s joke in remarks cited by media outlets, saying, “Who in their right mind says a wife would be ‘glowing’ over the potential murder of her beloved husband?!” She added that, in her view, rhetoric about the president and his supporters had become “completely deranged.”
Separately, The Daily Wire reported that Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended in September following what it described as erroneous statements Kimmel made about the suspect in the 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and that Kimmel later issued a statement without apologizing.
