![\"\u2018Completely](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d91f08e8691fea521dc5d19182bce070.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLate-night host Jimmy Kimmel has reignited controversy after repeating his joke about Melania Trump being an \u201cexpectant widow\u201d days after a violent incident at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comedian used his latest broadcast to revisit a line aimed at the First Lady, despite backlash from both Melania and US President Donald Trump who called on ABC to fire Kimmel on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his show,\u00a0Kimmel told viewers the moment felt familiar, referencing how he narrowly dodged outright cancellation for making similarly\u00a0distasteful jokes about Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination\u00a0in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for me today,\u201d he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original remark came during a segment designed to mirror traditional White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner roasts, which did not\u00a0proceed\u00a0this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,\u201d Kimmel said\u00a0last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He repeated the joke verbatim in his Monday night monologue following a failed assassination attempt on President Trump\u2019s life \u2014 and after Melania called him out for \u201chateful and violent rhetoric\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The response followed a shooting scare at the Washington Hilton, where a man allegedly entered the venue with plans to target members of the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kimmel insisted his comments were separate from the incident, where a Secret Service agent suffered minor injuries after\u00a0a gunman\u00a0charged a checkpoint in a bid to kill the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cole Allen, 31, was detained by authorities and was\u00a0arraigned on\u00a0multiple federal charges Monday afternoon in the DC federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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,\u201d Kimmel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also defended the intent behind the joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said it focused on \u201cabout (Melania\u2019s) age difference and the look of joy we see on her face\u201d when she appears with the President.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melania Trump rejected that explanation, accusing the host of crossing a line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKimmel\u2019s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,\u201d she wrote on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis monologue about my family isn\u2019t comedy\u00a0– his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Trump echoed the criticism and called for action from the network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,\u201d he wrote online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fallout extended beyond political figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A scheduled guest, Oz Pearlman, withdrew from the program following the incident and the public reaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pearlman had been present at the Correspondents\u2019 Dinner and was positioned near the president and first lady when the situation unfolded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Podcaster Jon Lovett stepped in as a replacement guest and referenced the situation during his appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also used the segment to take aim at the broader political climate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already went through another episode of Donald Trump trying to cancel Jimmy Kimmel. Gas is up to $6 a gallon. Open the f**king Strait of Hormuz,\u201d Lovett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has reignited controversy after repeating his joke about Melania Trump being an \u201cexpectant widow\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,2490,134,4625,52955,307964,427,1055],"class_list":["post-636031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-melania-trump","tag-trump-shooter","tag-tv","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}