Jimmy Kimmel says Melania Trump joke not 'call to assassination'

Late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday defended a joke he made about US First Lady Melania Trump, saying it had been "misconstrued" and was not a "call to assassinate" the US President.

"It was a very light ⁠roast ⁠joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said in the opening monologue of his show on Monday. "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination," he said.

Kimmel's comments came soon after US President Donald Trump, for the second time, called on the show network ABC and parent company Walt Disney to fire him for allegedly inciting violence.

What was Kimmel's joke about the Trumps?

Days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Kimmel quipped on his show about Melania having "a glow like an expectant widow." 

The joke was made during a parody segment where Kimmel pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

"People like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate," Melania Trump said in a social media post on X. 

Trump echoed it on Truth Social, calling the joke a "despicable call to violence" and "something far beyond the pale."

"I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject," Kimmel said in response to Melania's post. "I do, and I ‌think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it."

Kimmel expressed sympathy for Melania Trump and other attendees of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner for enduring the ⁠traumatic incident. But ​he also rejected the implication that a joke, delivered three days earlier, "had any effect on anything that happened."

How has the Trump administration tried to curtail the media?

This is not the first time Trump and show hostshave been at odds.

The US President has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programs that ​have been critical of ‌him. He has also pressed regulators to revoke licenses of broadcasters he claims are unfair to him.

In September, the head of the Federal Communications Commission ​pressured broadcasters to take Kimmel off the air.

ABC briefly suspended ⁠Kimmelover comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Hours before this, FCC head Brendan Carr warned that broadcasters who aired Kimmel could face fines or loss of ⁠licenses. 

How the US, Donald Trump reacted to Jimmy Kimmel's TV return

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Carr's ​comments drew pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had likened the threat to that of an organized crime boss.

Later in November, Trump suggested the FCC should move to revoke the broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC stations, over an ABC News correspondent questioning Saudi Arabia's crown prince about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist.

On Sunday, Trump lashed out at CBS journalist Norah O'Donnell on the 60 Minutes program.

The US President was visibly upset when she read extracts of a statement claimed to be written by the suspected shooter, mentioning words like "pedophile" and "rapist", without naming Trump.

"You're a disgrace," he said. "I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person... You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes."

Edited by: Alex Berry