Jimmy Kimmel started his Thursday show from the bedroom. Literally. The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host opened his monologue with a video his wife filmed of him waking up in bed to learn that Donald Trump had posted about him again, demanding ABC fire him for the second time in a week.
“This morning, I woke up to my wife shooting video with her phone,” Kimmel told his audience, as reported by Deadline. “She was shooting me to let me know the president gave me another shout-out today.” The clip showed Kimmel’s wife and show executive producer Molly McNearney waking her drowsy husband to break the news. “Donald Trump wants you fired again,” she told him. His half-asleep reply? “I haven’t even been fired once. How can I be fired again?”
The bedroom moment kicked off a full monologue punching back at Trump’s latest Truth Social post, which called Kimmel “seriously unfunny” and said he “incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television.” Trump also called Newsmax that afternoon to label Kimmel a “lowlife” and repeat his demand.
Kimmel’s “expectant widow” joke set off the firestorm
The backstory: on April 24, days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel staged a mock alternative version of the event on his show. Dressed in a tux at a podium, he delivered a roast routine that included a jab at Melania Trump. “Our first lady is here. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” he said.
Two days later, a heavily armed man attempted to rush into the real correspondents’ dinner at the Washington Hilton, where the Trumps and dozens of senior officials were in attendance. Authorities subdued the suspect before anyone was harmed. Kimmel’s clip then went viral in the aftermath of the incident, and what had been a routine late-night joke suddenly became a flashpoint.
On Monday, Melania Trump went public for the first time since the scare, posting on X that Kimmel’s words were “hateful and violent” and asking “how many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior.” Hours later, Trump posted on Truth Social calling the joke a “despicable call to violence” and declaring Kimmel should be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” according to CNN. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt backed them up, calling Kimmel’s remarks “completely deranged.”
Kimmel addressed the Melania joke head-on during his Monday night show. He said it was “obviously a joke about their age difference” and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” He also told the first lady directly: “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I think a great place to start would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.” He also expressed genuine sympathy for what the Trumps experienced at the dinner, saying: “I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that.”
Trump’s war on comedians meets its punchline
By Thursday, with Trump firing back again from Truth Social, Kimmel leaned all the way into the feud. He pointed out that Trump’s own approval ratings had hit an all-time low for his second term, and turned the president’s logic against him. “If incompetently presiding over not just ‘one of’ but the lowest rating in history is the reason I should be fired, we should both be out of a job,” Kimmel said on air.
He also brought up the Comey seashells controversy, noting Trump was so worked up “you would think I posted a picture of seashells or something.” His biggest line framed the whole feud in geopolitical terms: “Trump has three wars going on right now, Iranians, Ukrainians, and Comedians.”
Kimmel even proposed peace talks, suggesting Trump send JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and a real estate broker to negotiate a settlement at a neutral location. “Let’s see if we can come up with a cease-fire agreement,” he said. “I get to keep my job, you get to end your 11th war.”
This is the second time in less than a year that Kimmel has faced this level of White House pressure. In September 2025, Disney suspended his show after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened ABC affiliates over Kimmel’s comments following the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. The show returned six days later. The latest dust-up is also an early test for Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over last month. For now, Trump’s gold card visa program may be struggling to find takers, but his campaign to get Kimmel fired hasn’t slowed down either.
