Rosie O&#8217;Donnell will be featured as a guest host for Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s show as the late-night host steps away for a few months.
“I asked one of our commander-in-chief’s all-time favorites, Rosie O’Donnell, to be here to keep the hits coming,” Kimmel said, <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/06/20/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-taps-longtime-trump-nemesis-rosie-odonnell-to-replace-him-as-he-steps-back-from-late-night-show/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter">according</a> to Page Six.
O’Donnell’s selection carries a political edge because of her long-running feud with President Donald Trump. The former “View” co-host <a href="https://people.com/rosie-o-donnell-opens-up-about-child-clay-12-coming-out-nonbinary-11745558">left the United States</a> after Trump won a second term, moving to Ireland with her youngest child, Clay, who claims to be nonbinary.
In March, O’Donnell said she was officially living in Ireland and described the move as the safest and best decision for her family.
“I was never someone who thought I would move to another country,” O’Donnell said in a TikTok video. “You know, I’m happy. Clay is happy. I miss my other kids. I miss my friends. I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.”
Her feud with Trump escalated in July 2025, when the president said he was considering taking away her U.S. citizenship.
“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time, according to Page Six. “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA.”
O’Donnell responded in an Instagram post by saying Trump had “always hated” that she saw him as “a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself.”
O’Donnell has since returned to the U.S. for visits, including a quiet two-week trip to see family and a recent appearance on “Watch What Happens Live,” which films in New York City.
Now, she is set to return to late-night as one of Kimmel’s guest hosts.
Kimmel announced Thursday that he will take the next two months off from his late-night show, joking that he is doing so “this time voluntarily,” per Page Six. The remark appeared to reference the brief period ABC pulled his show over <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/abc-pulls-jimmy-kimmels-late-night-show-indefinitely-after-charlie-kirk-comments">comments</a> he made pertaining to Charlie Kirk’s death in September.
The show will continue with a rotation of guest hosts, including Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, Jelly Roll and Rosie O’Donnell.

ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” – Season 14

Jimmy Kimmel’s Guest Host Lineup Includes A Name Trump Knows Well

Kimmel’s Guest Host Lineup Includes A Name Trump Knows Well

Donald Trump

Jimmy Kimmel

Rosie O'Donnell

Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX IPO will undoubtedly be the biggest IPO in history. 
What&#8217;s unusual about this particular IPO is that it is widely available to retail investors, such as the man on the street. Typically, in any IPO, a certain percentage of the company&#8217;s stock is offered to the public, and a large percentage of that stock is already pre-purchased by institutional investors.
The pre-market valuation of the IPO is likely to be in the $1.77 trillion range, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That is not a bad thing. It is an amazing thing. But you are going to hear from all the wrong people that it&#8217;s immoral, terrible, even evil. Why?
Envy. It&#8217;s a universal human emotion, and envy is bad and wrong, and God explicitly condemns it.
What could destroy the country and the global economy is what has always threatened humanity: Envy.
Jimmy Kimmel is a beautiful example of this. Jimmy Kimmel is a multimillionaire who works for billionaires, and he&#8217;s upset about a prospective trillionaire.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/the-ben-shapiro-show-ep-2444?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Kimmel is an obnoxious, non-funny, woke pope of late-night TV, who&#8217;s probably worth somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. He is paid by people worth tens of billions of dollars to complain about a guy who built a company that would be worth $1.77 trillion.
Kimmel mocked:
<blockquote>Elon Musk came to the United States from South Africa in 1995, the son of a humble emerald mine owner, and he is so grateful to this country that allowed him to become a trillionaire. Tesla paid almost no federal income tax over the past three years. You know, for a guy who has been openly cheering immigrants getting kicked out of the country for stealing from us, sure seems like an immigrant who&#8217;s been stealing from us, to me.</blockquote>
This is just obnoxious trash. It is not true. Elon did not, in fact, grow up wealthy. His dad was kind of a mess. And as far as the idea that Elon came to the United States wealthy, that is eminently untrue. He was living in some of the worst apartments in America when he came here. And then he didn&#8217;t get a job at Netscape despite applying. And then he ended up becoming this unbelievable success.
The notion that he is stealing from Americans by building several of the most successful companies in American history is totally crazy.
What has Jimmy Kimmel built? Ever?
But here&#8217;s what&#8217;s really going on: Jimmy Kimmel doesn&#8217;t like that Elon is really, really, really rich.
Kimmel continued:
<blockquote>Trillion dollars. It&#8217;s hard for our brains to conceptualize that. I mean, we know a trillion is a number, but it&#8217;s so large. In the same way, we can&#8217;t fathom it the same way. We know, like Elon has a lot of kids when we can&#8217;t fathom him getting laid, right? So let me try to illustrate it. If you tried to count out loud to a trillion, you would be counting until the year 33,736. $1 trillion is 10 billion $100 bills.</blockquote>
I&#8217;m just wondering: Jimmy Kimmel is worth probably $100 million. If you counted to 100 million, it would take you about 3 years, if you counted one number per second and stayed up all night.
Why the envy, why the rage?
There’s certainly something political to it. Jimmy Kimmel was much nicer to Elon Musk back in 2013 when he had him on his show to talk about SpaceX.
He said to Musk:
<blockquote>You know, I want to go over some of your many accomplishments just for the audience in case they&#8217;re not familiar with them. In 1983, at age 12, you designed a video game and sold it to a computer magazine for $500. 1995, you quit the graduate program at Stanford to found Zip2. In 1999, you sold Zip2 to Compaq for $309 million.
You co-founded PayPal in 2000. You sold PayPal to eBay for a billion and a half dollars. You founded Space-X. You co-founded Tesla Motors. You helped create SolarCity, the solar power company. Well, it&#8217;s great to meet you. If you want to watch the launch, why wouldn&#8217;t you want to watch the launch of the Space-x rocket? On March 1 go to Space X.com and take a look.</blockquote>
Barack Obama toured SpaceX with Elon in 2010. The Democratic president of the United States marveled at it.
Musk was talking about reusable rockets back in 2010. That was not achieved for over half a decade. It was an enormous risk. And Obama was marveling at it at the time.
But now we&#8217;ve gone from that inspirational view to giant inflatable Elon Musks in Times Square with no shirt on and looking ugly.
What&#8217;s really going on here?
The answer is very simple: Envy.
There is a very interesting study in the journal &#8220;Frontiers in Psychology&#8221; from 2021 that discusses what are called “the two faces of envy.” The authors <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8578062/">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>Envy is like a wildfire destroying people. We feel envy for, a classmate who gets a good grade or, a neighbor who buys an expensive car. This kind of emotion drives our different behaviors, like small stones in the heart lake, ruining our peace of mind. &#8230; [Scholars] envy as “the intense, unpleasant feeling that one feels when one realizes that another has something that one strives for, pursues, or yearns for.” Envy is a painful emotion.</blockquote>
There are two kinds of envy. One is useful, and one is quite terrible.
One is benign envy: “The envious person may try to make themselves as good as the person being envied. Therefore, envy can increase personal effort, drive behavior to achieve the desired object, and to turn attention to the means of achieving it.”
And then there&#8217;s another type: malicious envy. This is where “The envious person may try to degrade the person being envied, to vilify or denigrate the other person&#8217;s advantages. Envy can increase schadenfreude behavior that leads to hostility and resentment. It can shift attention to the person being envied.”
By the way, it also leads to violence. There&#8217;s literally a full commandment among the Ten Commandments that is directly about envy: “You shall not covet your neighbor&#8217;s house, your neighbor&#8217;s wife, his servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor&#8217;s.”
God takes the time to say envy is bad.
By the way, this is the only commandment that has to do with your feelings. All the rest are behaviorally driven: Don&#8217;t steal. Don&#8217;t kill, don&#8217;t blaspheme. Respect your parents and everyone else. This one is emotional. Why did God reserve one commandment for the emotion of envy?
Because it turns out the entire history of humanity relies on whether we can actually master our envy. This is the story of Cain and Abel. The story of Cain and Abel is about envy. Cain decides to sacrifice to God, and Abel follows suit. And God, for reasons we don&#8217;t understand from the Bible, accepts Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain&#8217;s.
And then God says, “Surely if you do right, you will be uplifted. But if you do not do right, sin crouches at your door. Its urge is toward you, but you can be its master.”
What is that sin? It&#8217;s envy. And what does Cain do? Instead of going to Abel and saying, “What did you do right and I did wrong? How can I do better?” he kills Abel.
Envy is destructive. It is terrible.
What&#8217;s interesting here is when we get envious, because it&#8217;s not a universal timing thing; it&#8217;s a universal human emotion, we feel it all the time.
But it tends to kick in for anyone who&#8217;s just above you on the wealth index. So if you make 100 grand, you may be envious of the guy who makes 200 grand.
But it&#8217;s not every person who makes more than you.
There is a particular envy for people who take risks.
That’s because in our heart of hearts, we think we could have done that too. We look at Elon, we say, “I could have founded a SpaceX company. He thought of it, but I could have thought of it. I could have taken the risk. It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s within my purview.”
It&#8217;s really, really interesting to watch New Yorkers who just voted for a Democratic socialist like Zohran Mamdani, who riffs on Citadel CEO Ken Griffin all day long and roots for the Knicks this season. The Knicks are super rich. Really, really, really rich. Karl-Anthony Towns made $53 million this year. OG Anunoby made $40 million. Jalen Brunson makes $35 million a year. That is a lot of money.
But you&#8217;re not seeing jealousy or outrage in the stadium. People aren&#8217;t showing up and yelling at them about how they need to redistribute their income and pay more taxes, and how many school teachers are out of a job, and do we need more government-sponsored grocery stores.
So why are people so envious of these guys? Because everyone recognizes that these guys have unique talents given by God. You&#8217;re not seven feet, you&#8217;re not 270 pounds, and you can&#8217;t shoot the three.
But when it’s a smart person who doesn&#8217;t have exceptional physical qualities, then we get pretty jealous. “Why didn&#8217;t we get what he has? Why don&#8217;t we all get to be Elon Musk-rich? He&#8217;s not that much better than we are.”
But here is the thing. The reason that Elon is super-rich — and I know a lot of people who are as bright as Elon, I know a lot of very high IQ people, and Elon has a very high IQ, he is much richer than any of them — is because he took risks, huge risks, unprecedented risks.
And that is good because risk is what creates innovation. If you don&#8217;t have people risking, you don&#8217;t get better stuff. If you don&#8217;t have people taking out mortgages on their homes to sponsor and subsidize them, a company won&#8217;t get built.
If you don&#8217;t have people willing to put their own money where their mouth is, their own time, their own effort, you do not get new things.
We need new things. Not only that, we need a system that allows you to keep what you make.
For every single Elon Musk in any industry, there are 10,000 dudes who thought of it, risked it, and failed.
What is the only thing that will keep people risking it and trying to do the thing that actually builds? The only thing that incentivizes that is the possibility of making a lot of money.
That’s what generates people willing to take the risks that actually make the world a better place.
Risk-taking is risky. Take, for example, Blue Origin, run by another billionaire, Jeff Bezos, a competitor to SpaceX. A couple of weeks ago, we watched a Blue Origin rocket explode on the ground. Billions of dollars were lost in one millisecond.
That’s what it looks like when you take risks, because sometimes you fail. You know how many videos there are of Elon Musk&#8217;s rockets blowing up on the launch pad?
How do you incentivize a person to keep looking failure in the face over and over and over again? You have to have an American system, a free-market system that rewards risk-taking and punishes failure and rewards success.
That is what you require. People forget that Elon Musk risked pretty much his entire early fortune on SpaceX and Tesla.
This is risk-taking, and it&#8217;s awesome, and it should be rewarded.
No matter what Jimmy Kimmel thinks.

spacex_envy

The Sin Fueling America’s War On Success

Ben Shapiro

Elon Musk

Envy

Jeff Bezos

Opinion

SpaceX

Jimmy Kimmel got a little bit misty-eyed during Adam Carolla’s Walk of Fame ceremony on Wednesday.
The hyperpartisan late-night host put aside political beliefs during the ceremony for his longtime friend and former collaborator. Carolla is notoriously anti-woke, but Kimmel still showed up to speak at the event.
Kimmel started off by remembering when he was introduced to Carolla in 1994 when he was working on the Los Angeles radio show “Kevin and Bean.” Carolla, who was a boxing instructor, was brought in to prepare Kimmel for a boxing match. Kimmel said Carolla began roasting him immediately, saying, “Adam told ‘Kevin and Bean,’ ‘Jimmy is 160 pounds of pure chiseled steel. Unfortunately, he weighs 225.’”
“We did very little training. We would box for about eight minutes and then drink Snapple and go to lunch,” Kimmel added. “As a result, I lost that fight, but I gained a life partner. And if that sounds gay to you, it was and it is,” he said during the speech, calling Carolla “one of the funniest people” he’s ever met and the “Laverne to my Shirley.”  
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Jimmy Kimmel shares hilarious stories and gets emotional during Adam Carolla&#8217;s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony:
“Adam and I, as you probably know, don’t agree much when it comes to politics, but I love him dearly. I have never worked with anyone funnier.” <a href="https://t.co/JYtmpKiRHe">pic.twitter.com/JYtmpKiRHe</a>
— Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://x.com/Variety/status/2059714681875685455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kimmel brought up their opposing political beliefs, but said it didn’t change his feelings for his friend.
“Adam and I, as you probably know, don’t agree much when it comes to politics, but I love him dearly,” Kimmel went on. “I’ve never worked with anyone funnier. I am proud of him … this is a guy who worked his way up from nothing to become, literally, a millionaire, and if you don’t believe it you’ll hear him say it every single show.” 
“Adam is a true original,” he added. “He was a poor kid from the San Fernando Valley who was rejected by the management at Taco Bell, and whose name will now forever be part of this filthy, disgusting intersection,” Kimmel said of the star’s physical location.
Kimmel and Carolla are best known for the Comedy Central sketch show “The Man Show” and the prank call puppet show “Crank Yankers.” Kimmel went on to become a big name in late-night, while Carolla launched a podcast and has worked on various other entertainment projects, including comedy content and animated programming with The Daily Wire.

Kimmel and Carolla

Jimmy Kimmel Chokes Up During Adam Carolla’s Big Hollywood Moment

Adam Carolla

Comedy

Entertainment

Hollywood

The late-night comedy brigade gathered together during the final days of Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” to participate in their favorite activity: obsessing about President Trump.
Colbert hosted fellow late-night comedy hosts, including Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver, on Monday’s episode as he gears up for the show’s big finale on May 21.
Kimmel, who was briefly suspended last fall after making false comments about the man who assassinated Charlie Kirk, suggested that viewers should watch more late-night television and cancel Paramount+. 
“We have a lot of shows. 30,000 people watching each one, and it adds up,” Kimmel said. “People watch us on YouTube now. People have a lot of different options and they keep coming to us. I will tell you, when I got knocked off the air for a few days, people canceled Disney+. Why aren’t people canceling Paramount+? Because you never had it in the first place?”
He also responded to Colbert’s question about whether any of the other hosts ever expected to be “doing a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about.”
“You know what’s even weirder? Doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about,” Kimmel replied, referring to the criticism he received for his tasteless joke about the first lady being an “expectant widow” just days before a man attempted to assassinate Trump. 
Meyers, who has hosted NBC&#8217;s Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014, said he appreciates having Trump as a fan. “The thing I like, he posts when the show airs, and I want to say I appreciate that he is watching linear television,” Meyers said during the “Late Show” appearance. “If I would make my case for late-night, it’s that leaders of the free world are watching it when it airs.”
CBS announced that “The Late Show” was ending in July 2025, mentioning that it was “purely a financial decision.” However, some have speculated that Colbert’s show was canceled due to the merger between Paramount and Skydance. 
Colbert has been vocally opposed to CBS&#8217;s decision to pull the plug on the show despite reports that the program was losing $40 million annually.
The political commentator went on to blame the format rather than the content of the show.
“It’s possible that two things can be true,” Colbert told NYT. “Broadcast can be in trouble. They cannot monetize because of things like YouTube, because of the competition of streaming. They’ve got the books, and I do not have any desire to debate them over what they say their business model is and how it does not work for them anymore. But less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed.”

Colbert and Kimmel

TV’s Most Humorless Late-Night Hosts Gather To Obsess Over Trump

Jimmy Fallon

Late-Night

Paramount

Seth Meyers

Stephen Colbert

Television

It’s not just Jimmy Kimmel making late-night radioactive.
The comedian&#8217;s recent Trump assassination line drew plenty of heat, and rightly so, given that a third gunman just tried to kill the president days after that ABC broadcast.
There’s another, even more disturbing factor in play. Kimmel’s studio audience howled at the crack, part of an alarming trend with far-Left audiences. And, perhaps most troubling of all, Kimmel’s throng is about to expand.
Maybe by a lot. None of that bodes well for the national conversation.
Kimmel saying First Lady Melania Trump had the “glow like an expectant widow” didn’t happen in a vacuum. A few weeks earlier, “Saturday Night Live” uncorked a similarly themed gag that drew a hearty response.
“Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che noted that President Donald Trump took time away from the Oval Office to take in a Broadway show.
&#8220;I think that&#8217;s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean, what&#8217;s the worst that could happen?&#8221; Once again, the crowd roared at the John Wilkes Booth insinuation.
Modern late-night audiences can’t stop laughing at real or imagined violence. Late in 2024, “The Daily Show’s” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XB2gjykF3M">Jon Stewart looked stunned</a> as the show’s audience greeted news of Luigi Mangione’s capture following the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson with boos.
“Look, I’m sorry guys,” Stewart meekly said.
Kimmel even did a bit showcasing how his <a href="https://decider.com/2024/12/11/jimmy-kimmel-live-staffers-texts-thirsting-unitedhealthcare-suspect-luigi-mangione-jailhouse-bride/">left-leaning female staffers had crushes on Mangione</a> following his alleged attack on a husband and father in cold blood.
Months later, Democrats began attacking Tesla dealerships to show their disgust with Elon Musk’s DOGE policies. Part-time “Daily Show” host Jordan Klepper seemingly justified the serial attacks.
“Maybe people are mad at you because you don’t seem to know what the [bleep] you’re doing!”
Once again, the crowd roared, and the message couldn’t be clearer. Violence is acceptable if directed toward one’s political foes.
Kimmel had previously jumped on the Left’s anti-Tesla bandwagon, marinating in his audience’s lust for violence. Here’s OutKick describing one <a href="https://www.outkick.com/culture/jimmy-kimmel-jokes-about-encouraging-people-burn-more-teslas-during-elon-musk-rant">particular monologue segment on the subject.</a>
&#8220;People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles — new Tesla vehicles. Please don’t vandalize, don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,&#8221; Kimmel said before taking a long pause while the audience laughed.
Left-wing violence is worthy of laughs and encouragement to the average Kimmel fan…and the host himself, apparently.
Here’s betting the hard-working Americans who own and operate Tesla dealerships weren’t amused. Nor should anyone be chuckling over political violence.
These aren’t just a few random X users leaning on their worst instincts. It’s people in a public venue showcasing vile sentiments. And, of course, cheering on comic ringleaders who have little interest in defusing that rage.
Just the opposite. 
Mere months ago, Kimmel held up a T-shirt on camera that read, “Donald J. Trump Is Gonna Kill You.” That was neither funny nor subtle, much like Kimmel’s brand.
And, through it all, the Legacy Media has circled the wagons. You won’t read a bracing op-ed column castigating Kimmel, Colbert, Stewart, or other late-night voices for finding real-world violence hysterical.
The Hollywood Reporter quickly <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/trumps-demand-jimmy-kimmel-fired-white-house-correspondents-dinner-1236577999/">rushed to defend Kimmel</a> following the “expectant widow” crack, downplaying any attempt to fire him. The following day, the same site noted how actress Gina Carano <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/gina-carano-ronda-rousey-mandalorian-grogu-1236579219/">took years to claw back her career</a> after being fired by Disney, which owns ABC, for a social media plea for tolerance.
The hypocrisy was lost on the venerable outfit.
Kimmel’s recent headlines find him the unofficial king of the far-Left resistance, and his fiefdom could get bigger soon. Colbert’s “Late Show” ends its 11-year run May 21, following publicized reports that the show loses CBS a jaw-dropping $40 million a year.
Colbert will pop up elsewhere, either on a YouTube channel or a streamer eager to recreate his late-night shtick.
His viewers, weaned on a steady diet of far-Left rage, will have to go somewhere. Chances are, they’ll give Kimmel a long, hard look. Late-night shows no longer grab the audiences that Johnny Carson did in his glory days. The media is far too splintered for that kind of unified audience.
Still, if you take Kimmel’s ratings — the most <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/stephen-colbert-late-night-weekly-ratings-1135-lead/">recent numbers</a> are 2.02 million viewers — and add some of that Colbert crowd (2.54 million), that’s a sizable bump. For what it’s worth, <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/june-2025-late-night-ratings-kimmel-colbert-fallon-meyers/">Kimmel’s ratings were smaller</a> before he misled viewers about Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin.
That, plus a Legacy Media arm that only encourages Kimmel to get meaner, suggests that Kimmel’s Resistance shtick will have a much broader platform going into the midterm elections and beyond.
The only chance that Kimmel’s late-night screeds go the way of Samantha Bee, Magic Johnson, and other late-night victims comes down to simple economics.
CBS claimed “The Late Show” under Colbert’s reign was losing the network $40 million a year. That show regularly beats Kimmel’s program in the ratings. So does anyone think “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is actually making a profit? At some point, will an ABC executive crunch the numbers and ask why a major corporation finds losing money acceptable?
Until then, the hateful show will go on. The scariest part? “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon is left-leaning but far less callous than his late-night peers. And he’s getting clobbered by both Kimmel and Colbert in the ratings.
Apparently, a large portion of the country craves hate and violence on their late-night TV.
More troubling news? Some of President Trump’s would-be assassins’ manifestos sound achingly similar to a standard Kimmel screed.
And just like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” there’s nothing funny about that.

The Hollywood Reporter Women In Entertainment Presented By Lifetime – Arrivals

The Kimmel Fallout Has Only Begun

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel claimed Thursday that President Donald Trump’s criticism of him is an attempt to distract from what he called the “Trump-Epstein files” and the “illegal war he started” in Iran. 
He can’t imagine it just might have something to do with the tasteless joke he told about Trump’s wife, Melania, having “a glow like an expectant widow,” delivered days before an attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner.
Kimmel dismissed the backlash during his monologue, once again turning his focus on the president. 
“If incompetently presiding over not just one of but the lowest ratings in history is why I should be fired, we should both be out of a job,” Kimmel said, referencing reports of the president having low approval ratings.
“Isn’t there a war dragging on?” the comedian continued, lamenting that the president was speaking about any other topics. “Imagine if FDR had taken to the airwaves during the Battle of the Bulge to complain about a Little Orphan Annie comic strip he didn’t like? Trump has three wars going on right now: Iranians, Ukrainians, and comedians.”
The back-and-forth between Kimmel and conservatives has intensified since the assassination attempt last weekend. Critics have suggested that similar remarks targeting a Democratic president and first lady would have drawn significantly stronger backlash. 
First lady Melania Trump did not mince words in a scathing X post she shared Monday morning.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she wrote. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough.  It is time for ABC to take a stand,” the first lady added. “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
Kimmel has not issued an apology for the comments, and ABC has not announced any disciplinary action.

Kimmel

Kimmel Says He Knows The Real Reason Trump Wants Him Fired

The Federal Communications Commission is challenging Disney&#8217;s broadcast licenses as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel.
An <a href="https://x.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/2049194436505354626?s=20">FCC official confirmed to The Daily Wire</a> that ABC’s licenses are undergoing an early review, despite the standard renewal process that&#8217;s still several years off. Broadcast stations, including ABC, cannot operate over publicly owned airwaves without FCC licensing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: FCC orders the Walt Disney Company, American Broadcasting Company, and television subsidiaries to file early license renewal applications for their television stations.
&#8220;The FCC has been investigating The Walt Disney Company, its American Broadcasting Company, and its… <a href="https://t.co/8KZzuyMIsX">pic.twitter.com/8KZzuyMIsX</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/2049194436505354626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
The FCC has already scrutinized ABC’s broadcast license in connection with the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices. In an April 28 order, David J. Brown, chief of the video division, said the FCC has been investigating the Walt Disney Company for compliance violations.
&#8220;Specifically, the FCC has been investigating Disney’s ABC stations for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination. While Disney’s ABC has purported to respond to two FCC Letters of Inquiry Federal Communications Commission DA 26-416 2 (LOIs) as part of this investigation, the FCC has determined that additional actions are appropriate at this time,&#8221; Brown said.
&#8220;The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations,&#8221; the order stated.
Disney will be required to file renewals for all of its licensed TV stations by May 28, 2026.
A Disney spokesperson confirmed the order and vowed the company will fight it.
&#8220;ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming. We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,&#8221; the company said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
If the FCC starts pressuring or reviewing licenses, local ABC stations could be forced to change how they operate — what they air, how they cover stories, even who they hire. That can trickle down into less freedom in programming or more cautious, filtered content. For everyday Americans, it could mean the news and entertainment you see is shaped more by regulatory pressure than just editorial decisions — especially on major networks you already watch every day.
The escalating FCC-Disney feud comes as conservatives called on the network to oust late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for joking that First Lady Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow” — just days before a gunman attempted to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents&#8217; dinner.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” the First Lady said in a rare rebuke. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she added. “Enough is enough. 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.
Soon after, the president piled on, saying Kimmel &#8220;should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.&#8221;
In a Monday night monologue, a defiant Kimmel defended his remarks and refused to apologize.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” he said. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
“I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular,” he said. “But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend … and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. 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 Uproar Spills Over, ABC Stations Now Under Review. What It Means For Your TV.

WASHINGTON — ABC is remaining silent amid calls from the White House for late night show host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired for joking that Melania Trump looked like an &#8220;expectant widow&#8221; — just days before another would-be assassin tried to kill Donald Trump.
&#8220;I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,&#8221; President Donald Trump said on Monday afternoon. &#8220;Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s comments followed a rare statement from his wife, who said on Monday that &#8220;Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.&#8221;
&#8220;His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,&#8221; the First Lady said. &#8220;People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.&#8221;
&#8220;A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Enough is enough. 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.&#8221;
The Daily Wire has repeatedly reached out to both ABC and Kimmel&#8217;s representatives over the past 24 hours about the White House statements. Neither ABC nor Kimmel&#8217;s team has responded to requests for comment.
The network recently announced its decision to pull &#8220;The Bachelorette&#8221; amid concerns over bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul and domestic violence videos that surfaced. Years earlier, the network cancelled host Chris Harrison for defending bachelorette contestant Rachael Kirkconnell after photos surfaced of her attending an antebellum-themed party.
Kimmel&#8217;s remarks, however, have not appeared to faze the network, despite aggressive condemnation from the White House.
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” questioned Karoline Leavitt from the briefing room podium on Monday afternoon.
<div id="attachment_1085511" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-presses-abc-on-kimmels-melania-widow-joke-crickets/abcs-jimmy-kimmel-live-season-14-4" rel="attachment wp-att-1085511"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1085511" class="wp-image-1085511 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-534439408-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-534439408-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-534439408-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-534439408-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-534439408.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)</div>
Kimmel, meanwhile, defended his remarks without apologizing, claiming he was joking about the Trumps&#8217; age difference, mocking the Trumps, and even repeating the joke.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
&#8220;I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular,&#8221; he said during his stand-up bit. &#8220;But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend &#8230; and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. 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&#8217;s defense prompted a scathing response from Steven Cheung, the White House Director of Communications.
&#8220;Jimmy Kimmel is a sh*t human being for: #1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President #2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing,&#8221; Cheung said.
&#8220;ABC needs to fire him immediately and he should be shunned for the rest of his life,&#8221; he said.
ABC has still not responded to requests for comment from The Daily Wire.

JIMMY KIMMEL

ABC News Silent As White House Calls For Jimmy Kimmel Firing

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White House

Avowed leftist George Clooney doesn’t see anything wrong with what Jimmy Kimmel said about Melania Trump being an “expectant widow.”
The big-time Democrat donor and Hollywood A-lister said as much during a gala event Monday night, even going so far as comparing Kimmel’s joke about the president dying with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt using a popular idiom recently. 
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney <a href="https://variety.com/2026/scene/news/george-clooney-trump-jimmy-kimmel-fired-1236731720/">told</a> Variety. “She was making a joke. Fair enough. I look at that side and go, &#8216;Well, jokes are jokes.&#8217; But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
Clooney was referring to Leavitt telling Fox News “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” before heading into the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner.
The “Ocean’s 11” actor said he doesn’t believe that you should have “a good relationship with government” and that there should be a “free and fair press.”
Clooney tried to place blame on conservatives, saying the rhetoric “can be toned down.”
“When one side is calling anyone they disagree with traitors to the country, which is a charge that’s punishable by death, just because they don’t agree with someone, I think the rhetoric is a little too heated,” he went on.
Kimmel has been put on blast for a parody he did during which he said, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The clip aired Thursday night, two days before a crazed gunman gained access to the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner with the intention of not only killing the president, but taking out everyone in the room if necessary.
The first lady did not take the “joke” lightly. She wrote a scathing X post Monday morning, urging ABC to reprimand the late-night comedian.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she wrote. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough.  It is time for ABC to take a stand,” the first lady added. “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
Kimmel responded to the backlash on Monday night, doubling down and claiming that everyone was overreacting to his bit. 
“&#8230;Obviously, [it] was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel insisted.

George Clooney

Hollywood A-Lister Comes To Kimmel’s Defense, Blames Conservatives For ‘Heated’ Rhetoric

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U.S.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel decided that instead of apologizing for his ill-timed, tasteless, and absolutely unfunny “joke” about the first lady looking forward to being a widow, he was going to double down.
The comedian said as much during his monologue Monday night after being trashed by everyone for days, including Melania Trump herself.
&#8220;I said, &#8216;Our first lady Melania&#8217;s here, look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.&#8217; Which, obviously, was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they&#8217;re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he&#8217;s almost 80 and she&#8217;s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,&#8221; Kimmel, an avid Trump critic, insisted.
“There was no big reaction to it until this morning, when I faced yet another Twitter vomit storm and calls to fire me from our first lady,” the host added.
<div style="max-width: 728px; margin: 0 auto;">  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 220px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/Om9afaax3au8c2eT7fV8byzEd4JvTCQ8?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=8173e85f-bad2-4eab-b362-ba288df1367f&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=Jimmy%20Kimmel%20hits%20back%20at%20critics%20over%20Melania%20%E2%80%98widow%E2%80%99%20joke%20and%20refuses%20to%20apologize&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2F5c8f5834-8d0d-4dc2-8468-622fb138f4ae.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
Critics pointed out how if it were Democrats in power, a “joke” like that about the president’s death mere days before an assassination attempt would be treated like a national crisis.
Melania did not mince words in a scathing X post she shared Monday morning.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she wrote. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough.  It is time for ABC to take a stand,” the first lady added. “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
Kimmel’s fake roast aired two days before California educator Cole Allen, 31, rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton armed with multiple weapons. He managed to strike an officer in his bulletproof vest before being detained and transported to a medical facility.
President Trump and other high-ranking officials were evacuated safely from the event, and there were no fatalities.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also blasted Kimmel for his “expectant widow” comments and called on ABC to reprimand the outspoken host.
&#8220;Who in their right mind says a wife would be &#8216;glowing&#8217; over the potential murder of her beloved husband?!” Leavitt said.
&#8220;And having experienced what I did with the First Lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but that. This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady, and his supporters is completely deranged, and it&#8217;s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night,&#8221; she added.
Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended in September after erroneous statements he made about the man who assassinated Charlie Kirk. He issued a statement afterwards, but did not apologize.

Jimmy Kimmel Hits Back At Critics Over Melania ‘Widow’ Joke And Refuses To Apologize

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Media

Politics

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
“Our First Lady, Melania, is here,” <a href="https://youtu.be/GRjKhsJc95o?t=486">Jimmy Kimmel</a> said in a sketch for a hypothetical All-American White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he imagined himself as host. “So beautiful … Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Two days later, at the official dinner, the first lady would be forced to take cover behind her dinner table as gunfire erupted outside the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/25/politics/live-news/trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner">press gala</a> in Washington, D.C.
Kimmel’s live audience, screaming with laughter, couldn’t have known what would unfold post-show. And maybe they forgot about the other near-tragedies for the Trumps. It’s been almost two years since President Donald Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsfMPTiIuvY">shot in the ear</a> in Butler, Pennsylvania. And maybe the headlines about the two armed conspirators hoping to shoot their shots near <a href="https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-mar-a-lago-intruder-shot-dead-3-months-before-incident-in-washington/71128207">Mar-a-Lago</a> and Trump International Golf Club are fading into the distance. 
Kimmel pressed on, bagging that low-hanging fruit like he was working the checkout at Target, following up the dead husband joke with laughs about the “Melania” documentary’s Rotten Tomatoes score (a website he says was “named after her husband’s testicles”) and an Epstein tie-in. 
Kimmel was practically throbbing with “witticisms.” Do not continue using if you experience symptoms of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome">TDS</a> such as sweaty palms, limited perspective, and blah late-night comedic instincts. 
Calling him a coward, Melania Trump later posted to <a href="https://x.com/flotus/status/2048769128513585618">X</a>, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and [deepen] the political sickness within America.”
Melania turned 56 on Sunday, possibly still reeling from surviving what <a href="https://people.com/melania-trump-56th-brithday-after-husband-donald-said-whcd-shooting-was-traumatic-for-her-11958613">President Trump</a> called “a rather traumatic experience for her.” While Melania exudes Slovenian-style strength, it seems everyone piles on the First Lady any chance they get. She has filled the most visible unelected White House role for years. Is this really still an itch that needs to be scratched?  
My eyeballs first popped out of my head regarding Melania Trump Derangement Syndrome (MTDS) when first lady Jill Biden’s sensible pumps shuffled into the White House in 2021. Outlets such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CKR-RbIBABb/?img_index=1">The Cut</a> lamented the so-called “fashion drought” of the first Trump administration (dismissing Melania’s Jackie Kennedy-besting style) and praising hum-drum inauguration day fits by Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Dr. Jill (with a Ph.D. in serving a look, apparently) in her <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/markarian-designer-jill-biden-inauguration-day-look">tweed</a> dress, coat, and COVID-19 mask.
Never mind Melania’s actual career as a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/09/03/melania-trump-vanity-fair-vogue/85851129007/">fashion model</a> for GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. That was before she entered 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and was snubbed by <a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/first-ladies-in-vogue">Vogue</a>, which has been documenting first ladies since 1929. Curious about U.S. history according to Condé Nast? Here’s a crash course: Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower — everyone in between — Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, [BLANK], Jill Biden, [BLANK]. No offense, but not every FLOTUS is a looker. And some of them are obviously Republicans.
When Vanity Fair reportedly flirted with the idea of finally putting Melania on its cover <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/08/24/2025/vanity-fairs-new-cruise-director-will-have-to-choose-between-his-reporters-and-his-friends">in 2025</a>, an editor for the magazine told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/09/03/melania-trump-vanity-fair-vogue/85851129007/">the Daily Mail</a>, “I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me. We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right.” 
Former first lady Michelle Obama, who graced the covers of <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1985565486407680059">15 major fashion magazines</a> during her husband’s presidency, later complained about not getting the same “<a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/03/us-news/michelle-obama-moans-she-endured-white-hot-glare-as-first-lady/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">grace</a>” all the other first ladies got. Waah.
Even if you hate her husband with an orange-tinted passion, you can’t deny Melania’s elite status. Go ahead and make fun of her accent, but she speaks <a href="https://www.cnn.com/us/melania-trump-fast-facts">six languages</a> (Slovenian, French, Serbian, German, Italian, and English). She married up, bore and raised a son (who actually seems pretty well adjusted for growing up in <a href="https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/melania-donald-trump-barron-childhood-home/">Trump Tower</a> and the White House), stuck by her man, and graciously puts up with an onslaught of mainstream donkey doo no matter what she does. 
Remember <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THr_seahKUI">Melania’s first all-white Christmas</a> at the White House, complete with a <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/articles/christmas-white-house-2017/#:~:text=Roosevelt's%201866%20edition%20of%20%E2%80%9CA,White%20House%20and%20features%20Mrs.">350-pound gingerbread house</a>, 53 bedazzled trees, and 31,000 holiday cookies? Yeah, the internet hated it! <a href="https://time.com/5039367/melania-trump-white-house-christmas-decorations-meme/">Memes</a> flooded the internet, featuring Melania as a winter witch and describing the minimalist decor as a reflection of her cold, dead soul. 
Her “Be Best” anti-bullying initiative, advocating for the mental health of kids suffering from online abuse, was bashed when she launched it in 2018. She battled headlines describing the platform as having “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-childlike-strangeness-of-melania-trumps-be-best-campaign">childlike strangeness</a>” and calling her “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/07/melania-trump-be-best-campaign-donald-trump">disingenuous</a>” for being married to a “bully” of a president and trying to help others.
&#8220;It is not news or surprising to me that critics and the media have chosen to ridicule me for speaking out on this issue, and that’s okay,” <a href="https://people.com/melania-trump-expand-be-best-initiative-second-term-8773443">Melania said</a> at the time. “I remain committed to tackling this topic because it will provide a better world for our children.” 
Notably, according to the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167111">UN Human Rights Council</a>, 66% of surveyed kids in 2026 said online bullying is only getting worse. Maybe it would be a different story had there been a few flattering headlines about the first lady’s idea. But whatever, exploited children. Trump sucks! 
Just so we have all our historical ducks in a row, first ladies have been doing some pretty wild things since we started electing presidents. The original popularizer of “millennial pink,” Mamie Eisenhower, decorated with so much of it that the press started referring to the White House as the “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouseHistory/posts/happy-national-pink-day-first-lady-mamie-eisenhower-loved-pink-so-much-so-that-t/194044859642652/">Pink Palace</a>.” Mary Todd Lincoln held literal <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/seances-in-the-red-room">séances</a> (some with Abe!) in the White House to cope with her children’s deaths. And gaining fame as the “secret president,” <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1600/first-ladies/edithwilson">Edith Wilson</a> basically ran the country when Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke while in office, “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-16-bk-anthony16-story.html">seizing control</a>” of presidential duties she was not elected to do. 
And we’re supposed to believe Melania wearing a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45853364">$39 Zara jacket</a> that said “I really don’t care, do you?” was the worst?
Until Melania entered the scene, America largely gave every first lady a pass for rising to the occasion in a role they were compelled to agree to and crush. Read to kids, pretend to help choose the state dinner menu, and decorate for every holiday. You have “one” job; better nail it in pantyhose, lady.
Maybe you can blame the ire toward Melania on the clickable outrage of the media cycle. Someday soon, we’ll all be focused on a different POTUS and every last detail of his or her ever-loving spouse. But for now, wouldn’t it be nice if we could critique the main character and not the woman keeping the first family afloat? I’m inclined to agree with Melania, who stated on <a href="https://x.com/dalepartridge/status/2028482118918283663?s=46">X</a>, “Enough is enough.”

Being First Lady Is Hard. Being Melania Trump Is Something Else.

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Upstream

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

President Donald Trump on Monday called on ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, accusing the comedian of making a &#8220;despicable call to violence&#8221; after joking about first lady Melania Trump becoming a widow.
Trump took to Truth Social to respond to Kimmel&#8217;s White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner bit, which the late-night host used to mock the president, first lady, and administration officials. In his bit, which Kimmel delivered at his fake White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner two days before the real event, the comedian pretended to address Melania Trump in the audience, saying, &#8220;You have a glow like an expectant widow.&#8221;
Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116477838570626860">said</a> on Monday that Kimmel should be &#8220;immediately fired.&#8221;
&#8220;Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be. He then stated, &#8216;Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.'&#8221;
Trump argued the joke crossed a line, pointing to a security incident at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner that followed days later on Saturday.
&#8220;A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale.&#8221;
Two days after Kimmel joked about Melania Trump becoming a widow, a gunman charged past security at the White House Correspondents&#8217; dinner with intentions of targeting the president and top administration officials, authorities said. According to officials, the suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was neutralized by Secret Service agents before he was able to breach the ballroom. In his manifesto, Allen referred to Trump as a &#8220;pedophile, rapist, and traitor.&#8221;
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also condemned Kimmel during a White House briefing on Monday.
&#8220;Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?&#8221; Leavitt asked. &#8220;This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady, and his supporters is completely deranged and it&#8217;s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night.&#8221;  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 220px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/FaMBPwcUpjOnpuSYIjn3dnpPZIQ02ONEL?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=5868376a-c019-443f-9c82-120d06268798&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=Leavitt%20questions%20Kimmel%E2%80%99s%20sanity%20after%20Melania%20%E2%80%98widow%E2%80%99%20remark%20he%20called%20a%20%E2%80%98joke%E2%80%99&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2Fec236e11-f0ad-41ca-a8ea-4be2842c17e4.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Earlier in the day, the first lady <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-melania-trump-responds-to-kimmels-hateful-monologue-after-white-house-dinner-shooting?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=READ+IT%3A+Melania+Trump+Responds+To+Kimmel%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98Hateful%E2%80%99+Monologue+After+White+House+Dinner+Shooting">responded</a> to Kimmel&#8217;s monologue, saying his &#8220;hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.&#8221;
&#8220;People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,&#8221; Melania Trump added.
It&#8217;s not the first time that Kimmel has gotten into hot water with Trump over a comment he made regarding political violence. Kimmel was suspended last year after saying that the assassin who killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter. Kimmel was suspended by ABC for a week after the remark, and Trump was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-true-bunch-of-losers-trump-rips-into-abc-for-ending-jimmy-kimmel-suspension" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incensed</a> when the network allowed the late-night host to return.

Jimmy Kimmel/Melania Trump/Donald Trump

Trump Wants Kimmel Fired Over ‘Despicable’ Assassination Comment

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