Highlights:
- Melania Trump slams Jimmy Kimmel’s “expectant widow” joke
- Remarks resurface after shooting incident at Washington dinner
- Gunman reportedly targeted Trump and officials
- Right-wing critics blame political rhetoric for extremism
- Debate grows over free speech and late-night comedy
First lady Melania Trump lashed out Monday (27) at comedian Jimmy Kimmel over a joke likening her to an "expectant widow," a jibe with eerie resonance after a shooting at a dinner attended by Donald Trump.
Even though Kimmel remarked in a monologue days ago, right-wing commentators who support Trump have resurrected it to call for the head of the talk show host. Administration officials say a gunman who tried to storm a media gala dinner with a shotgun Saturday night in Washington was apparently targeting Trump and other administration officials.
Security officers subdued the man after an exchange of gunfire. In the aftermath of the drama, right-wing critics claimed that Democrats criticizing Trump were responsible for fueling extremism, even though the president himself has repeatedly broken precedents with violent invective against opponents, the media, the courts, and immigrants.
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As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.In his monologue last Thursday (23), Kimmel portrayed himself as the MC of that upcoming banquet, a glitzy yearly event called the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Kimmel's jokes included one in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said, "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president ever to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56.
Hitting out at Kimmel Monday on X, the first lady said Kimmel’s "monologue about my family isn’t comedy, his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America.
"Kimmel was briefly suspended from his show on the ABC network last September following government pressure after he said Trump's hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk."A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," the first lady added on Monday."Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community." (AFP)
A visitor holds a baby at the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial with One World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan in the distance on August 23, 2026 in Jersey City, New Jersey.Getty
American flags and flowers line the memorial pool at the National September 11 Memorial to mark the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2023 in New York.Getty
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh immigrant from India, was shot and killed outside the gas station he owned in Mesa, Arizona. .
Muslim men pray during a Day of Remembrance open house at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York September 11, 2002 in New York City. Getty
