White House ramps up pressure on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over first lady remark

The White House on Tuesday intensified pressure on ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a comment he made about first lady Melania Trump last week, with a top aide saying the comedian “should be shunned for the rest of his life.”

In a post on X, White House communications director Steven Cheung used an expletive to describe Kimmel and blasted him for making a “disgusting joke” and “doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing.”

“ABC needs to fire him immediately,” Cheung said in part, echoing a demand made by President Donald Trump.

The president and the first lady have sharply criticized Kimmel for referring to her as an “expectant widow” on last Thursday’s episode. Two days later, a gunman opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.

The Trumps and top administration officials were rushed out of the Washington Hilton ballroom. The suspect faces three charges, including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.

Kimmel addressed the backlash at the top of his show Monday, framing his “widow” comment as a joke about the 23-year age difference between the Trumps.

“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 said, adding that he believes the country should reject “hateful and violent rhetoric.”

Kimmel’s latest monologue had topped more than 2.2 million views on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” YouTube channel as of Tuesday morning.

ABC and its corporate parent, The Walt Disney Co., have remained publicly silent on the war of words between the White House and Kimmel. The broadcast network and media giant did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The criticism of Kimmel comes seven months after ABC briefly suspended his talk show amid a firestorm over his comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.

In the midst of that controversy, Nexstar and Sinclair — two leading owners of local broadcast stations — took Kimmel’s show off the air. The boycott lasted nine days. (Together, Nexstar and Sinclair own 70 ABC affiliates across the U.S.)

Nexstar and Sinclair did not immediately respond to NBC News’ questions about whether they planned to again pre-empt Kimmel’s show.

Kimmel’s comments about the suspect in Kirk’s killing also drew scrutiny from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, the broadcast industry’s top federal regulator. Carr accused Kimmel of “the sickest conduct imaginable.”

The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fresh wave of Kimmel criticism Tuesday. When reached by an NBC News reporter Monday, Carr declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Semafor reported Tuesday that the FCC is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, citing people familiar with the matter. NBC News has not independently verified that report.

Semafor, citing a person familiar with the FCC’s thinking, said the review was not directly tied to Kimmel’s comments about the first lady. Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

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