Jimmy Kimmel is pressing ahead with his jokes about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, ignoring pressure from the White House and asking to be taken off the air.
On his show on Monday, May 4, Kimmel took aim at the president’s late-night posts on Truth Social, highlighting a photo Trump shared of his wife.
“At 11:04, she posted this even more amazing photo of Melania smiling,” Kimmel said, drawing laughter from the studio audience.
“I don’t know when the last time we saw that was.”
He also addressed Trump’s comments over the weekend at a Florida retirement community, where the president claimed that Melania “hates” when she dances on the Village People YMCA stage, what Trump called “the gay national anthem.”
“Does Melania hate it when you do things? No way!” Kimmel joked. “What a commotion.”
The jokes come as Kimmel finds himself in the middle of a serious escalation with the White House.
The feud erupted after an April 23 episode in which he described Melania as having “a glow like an expectant widow.”
Two days later, a gunman breached security at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
The alleged shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was later charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Melania, who had attended the dinner, made a rare public statement before appearing in court, directly criticizing Kimmel.
“People like Kimmel should not have the opportunity to come into our homes every night to spread hate,” he wrote on X.
“Enough is enough. It’s time for ABC to take a stand.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel a “shitty human being” and said he should be fired “immediately.”
Kimmel defended the original comment, calling it an “obvious” joke about the age difference between the president, 79, and the first lady, 56.
He also addressed Melania directly, expressing his genuine sympathy for the scare that occurred at dinner.
“I’m sorry that you, the president and everyone who was in that room on Saturday went through that. I’m really sorry. Just because no one was killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary.”
Trump himself intervened during a newsmax appearance, calling Kimmel “a criminal, whether he apologized or not” and saying he “shouldn’t be on TV.”
The president had previously threatened to “test” ABC after the network briefly suspended Kimmel in September over comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC and its parent company Disney are facing increasing pressure from management.
The Federal Communications Commission last week ordered a review of ABC station licenses, citing an investigation into possible violations of federal law and FCC rules at local ABC stations.
