Jimmy Kimmel is pressing ahead with jokes about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, brushing off White House pressure and calls for him to be taken off air.
On his Monday, 4 May, show, Kimmel took aim at the president’s late-night posting activity on Truth Social, singling out a photo Trump shared of his wife.
“At 11:04, he posted this even more unbelievable picture of Melania smiling,” Kimmel said to laughter from the studio audience.
“I don’t know the last time we saw that.”
He also picked up on Trump’s weekend remarks at a Florida retirement community, where the president claimed Melania “hates” when he dances on stage to Y.M.C.A. by the Village People, which Trump called “the gay national anthem.”
“Melania hates when you do things? No way!” Kimmel quipped. “What a buzzkill.”
The jokes come as Kimmel finds himself in the middle of a serious escalation with the White House.
The dispute flared after a 23 April episode in which he described Melania as having “a glow like an expectant widow.”
Two days later, a gunman rushed security at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was subsequently charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Melania, who had attended the dinner, made a rare public statement ahead of the court appearance, directly criticising Kimmel.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she wrote on X.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel a “s— human being” and said he should be fired “immediately.”
Kimmel defended the original remark, describing it as an “obvious” joke about the age gap between the president, 79, and the first lady, 56.
He also addressed Melania directly, expressing genuine sympathy about the scare at the dinner.
“I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am. Just ’cause no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary.”
Trump himself weighed in during a Newsmax appearance, calling Kimmel “a lowlife, whether he apologized or not” and saying he “shouldn’t be on television.”
The president had previously threatened to “test” ABC after the network briefly suspended Kimmel in September over remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC and its parent company Disney are facing mounting pressure from the administration.
The Federal Communications Commission last week ordered a review of ABC’s station licences, citing a probe into possible violations of federal law and FCC rules at local ABC stations.
