MAE O’MALLEY / CONTRIBUTOR

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host Jimmy Kimmel is under fire from the Trump administration after poking fun at First Lady Melania Trump during one of his nightly monologues. 

Kimmel has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! for over 23 years. Photo courtesy of @jimmykimmellive/Instagram

The joke was made just ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a yearly dinner for journalists and government officials to celebrate their work. Since 1981, a comedian hosts the dinner and opened with a playful roast of the president and other attendees. Recent hosts included comedians Hasan Minhaj and host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah. 

President   Trump   attended   for  the  first   time   in   years  and   declined to follow tradition. Instead, mentalist Oz Pearlman acted as the entertainment   for   the evening. Kimmel shared a monologue of what his   speech   would look like had he been the host. 

“Our First Lady, Melania, is here,” Kimmel quipped. “So beautiful. Mrs. Trump you have the glow of an expectant widow.”

The joke was met with laughter from the audience the First Lady, however, took to X, formerly Twitter, after the weekend to criticize the joke. 

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump posted.

After Melania Trump’s social media post, Trump added his commentary on Truth Social. 

“When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television,” Trump questioned. “People are angry. It better be soon!!!”

Kimmel does not have one of the lowest rated television shows, despite what Trump posted. In early 2026, Kimmel’s show brought in an estimated 2.17 million total viewers, according to TVInsider. Compared to his peers on other networks, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has the second highest ratings for an 11:35 p.m. show, following  behind  The  Late   Show with Stephen Colbert. 

Colbert’s  show was canceled last July by its network, CBS, which claimed that it was due to budgetary reasons. However, many believe it was due to a $16 million lawsuit the network settled with President Trump, whom Colbert often makes fun of as well. 

Kimmel’s monologue was three days before the actual dinner, where there was an active shooter and suspected assassination attempt toward the president. Kimmel responded to the events of the dinner on his following Monday evening show, which opened with the crowd chanting his name. 

“It   was  a   very   light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel  stated. “It was not by any stretch  of   the definition  a  call   to   assassination and they know that.” 

Some people find Kimmel’s joke acceptable, and others found it went too far. USD junior Emma Cheng weighed in on if Kimmel’s monologue crossed a line. 

“I’m not super sensitive so I think that Jimmy Kimmel shouldn’t be fired for making a joke,” Cheng commented. “Trump makes hella jokes all the time and he doesn’t get consequences for that.” 

The  Federal  Communications Commission (FCC) has taken action against the Walt  Disney  Company,  ABC’s parent company. The chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, was appointed by the president and confirmed through Senate hearings in early 2025. Carr often supports the president. 

“We are fully aligned with the agenda that President Trump is running,” Carr told the Wall Street Journal. 

On Sept. 17, 2026, the FCC called on The Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent company, to suspend Kimmel after a monologue consisting of jokes, mentioning Charlie Kirk. ABC suspended the show for five days before Kimmel made his return to air.

Now, the FCC has alerted Disney that they must seek an early license renewal for their eight television stations. The renewal was  not  due until at least 2028. Carr defended his actions.

“You can accelerate when a license comes due and say, ‘Hey, we have significant concerns with the value of conducting your operations,’” Carr said in a podcast interview. “‘We want to review your license now and decide if you’re in the public interest.’ If we find that a broadcast hasn’t been doing that, then the statute requires us to issue a hearing designation order.”

Carr’s comments did not mention Kimmel and stated that the renewal has been planned due to concerns with Disney’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Disney has made no comment   on   Trump’s posts and Kimmel’s show continues to   air.   Disney  has  not made any effort to distance themselves from the television host. 

Trump’s demand for action and the FCC’s involvement has worried many that the president is abusing executive power and censoring the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. USD junior Josie Behrens commented on Trump’s position. 

“At the end of the day, everyone has a right to free speech and just because you don’t like what someone’s saying doesn’t mean they have less of a right to say what they want,” Behrens stated. “It goes for everyone, but, you know, leaders of countries should probably be practicing what they preach. There are bigger fish to fry than TV show hosts, like, hello? Our world is crumbling.” 

Some activists for the freedom of expression have stated that the first lady can dislike a joke, but threats against a network that works to frighten other television hosts crosses a line. Ari Cohen of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression commented to Variety on Trump’s actions. 

“Subjecting broadcasters to regulatory liability  when  anyone on  their  network gets something  wrong  would  turn the FCC into an arbiter  of  truth and  cast  an   intolerable  chill  over the airwaves,”  Cohen  stated. 

Despite significant consequences in the past, Kimmel refuses to lay off, and continues to share his thoughts in his  monologues  on  ABC  on  the current Trump administration. 

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the second highest rated 11:35 p.m. show in America. Photo courtesy of @abc15arizona/Instagram