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President Donald Trump stated that ABC had “better” fire Jimmy Kimmel soon, in his latest attack against the network and its late-night host. Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday morning, posting, “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
Disney, the parent company of ABC, has not shown any willingness to yield to pressure from Trump or the FCC’s unusual challenge to ABC’s station licenses. The company has refrained from commenting on calls to dismiss Kimmel, who is under contract until next year. Despite the controversy, Disney has continued to air his late-night show and has taken no steps to distance itself from him.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump followed up his Truth Social post by telling Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren that “Kimmel shouldn’t be on television” and that “ABC is putting themselves in great jeopardy” by keeping him on air.
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The president referenced his 2024 defamation lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos and ABC News, which the network settled for $16 million to avoid an unpredictable trial. “This is very serious,” Trump said.
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Trump has criticized Kimmel for years, but this latest controversy began last week when Kimmel joked that first lady Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow.” Pro-Trump media outlets criticized the comment, particularly following the shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.
Kimmel responded to Trump’s criticism of the comedian’s off-color joke earlier this week, during which he said on his show last week, a few days before the shooting, “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
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“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said. “It was not—by any stretch of the definition—a call to assassination.” Kimmel then continued to criticize the first lady, doubling down on political rhetoric.
“Obviously, it was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together,” he quipped, adding that “they know that” was not a joke about “assassination” but Trump dying of old age.
In a post on X, Melania Trump called Kimmel’s joke about her “hateful and violent” and urged ABC — which airs his show — to take action.
Following the insult, the Federal Communications Commission ordered The Walt Disney Company’s ABC to seek early broadcast license renewals for the eight TV stations it owns, NPR reported.
As the FCC began its early license renewal process, Chairman Brendan Carr expressed criticism towards Disney, the parent company of ABC. In a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, whose husband is Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, Carr mentioned several approaches the FCC can take regarding broadcast licenses.
“You can accelerate when a license comes due and say, ‘hey, we have significant concerns with the value of conducting your operations. We want to review your license now and decide if you’re in the public interest,’” Carr said. “If we find that a broadcast hasn’t been doing that, then the statute requires us to issue a hearing designation order.”
But the Trumps’ responses and the FCC’s demand have seemingly not affected Kimmel, who responded to all of that during his Tuesday show by essentially saying he’ll continue on, per CNN Business. He avoided mentioning the FCC’s actions and instead “used a satirical monologue on King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to the White House to highlight the hypocrisy of a joke the president made about his marriage to first lady Melania Trump,” CNN noted.
