{"id":12326,"date":"2026-04-28T07:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/28\/jimmy-kimmel-speaks-out-after-melania-trump-widow-joke-criticism-time-magazine\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:44:02","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-speaks-out-after-melania-trump-widow-joke-criticism-time-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/28\/jimmy-kimmel-speaks-out-after-melania-trump-widow-joke-criticism-time-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel Speaks Out After Melania Trump \u2018Widow\u2019 Joke Criticism – Time Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\u201cYou know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job,\u201d comedian Jimmy Kimmel said in the opening monologue<\/a> of his late-night show Monday evening. \u201cWe\u2019ve all been there, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Kimmel, in a skit<\/a> that aired on April 23 that satirized the then-upcoming White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, pretended to address Melania and joked that the First Lady had \u201ca glow like an expectant widow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after the actual dinner on April 25 was disrupted by a shooting<\/a>, suspected to be the third assassination attempt on the President, Melania claimed on social media that Kimmel\u2019s \u201chateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country\u201d and that \u201chis monologue about my family isn\u2019t comedy.\u201d The President also chimed in, referencing Kimmel\u2019s \u201cexpectant widow\u201d joke and claiming that it was \u201cfar beyond the pale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel defended himself on Monday night\u2019s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em>, saying that his remark was not a call for violence but rather \u201cobviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they\u2019re together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel continued: \u201cIt was a very light roast joke about the fact that he\u2019s almost 80, and she\u2019s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He noted, facetiously, that if the Trumps really believe his remarks could have induced violence, they should also look into a remark made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt before the dinner. \u201cIt will be funny. It will be entertaining,\u201d Leavitt had told Fox News. \u201cThere will be some shots fired tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kimmel said he understands that the incident may have been particularly \u201cstressful\u201d for the Trumps and agreed to reject \u201chateful and violent rhetoric,\u201d he argued that the First Lady should first speak to her husband about dialing back inflammatory language against his critics and the press.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I, as are all of us, because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech,\u201d Kimmel said, while noting that he\u2019s a vocal advocate against gun violence. \u201cI am sorry that you and the President and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am,\u201d he said. \u201cJust \u2019cause no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn\u2019t traumatic and scary, and we should come together and be best.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job,\u201d comedian Jimmy Kimmel said in the opening monologue of his late-night show Monday evening. \u201cWe\u2019ve all been there, right?\u201d Kimmel, in a skit that aired on April 23 that satirized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}