Jimmy Kimmel Says 'Sorry' to Melania Trump for One Thing While Defending His Joke About Her
Jimmy Kimmel Says 'Sorry' to Melania Trump for One Thing While Defending His Joke About Her
Brenton BlanchetTue, April 28, 2026 at 3:30 PM UTC
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Jimmy Kimmel; Melania TrumpCredit: Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube; Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty -
Jimmy Kimmel responded to Melania and Donald Trump after they took issue with a joke he made on his show
On the Monday, April 27 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said he was sympathetic over the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
"Just 'cause no one get got killed doesn't mean it wasn't traumatic and scary," Kimmel said
Jimmy Kimmel is offering an apology to first lady Melania Trump, but not for his comedy.
During the Monday, April 27 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host broke his silence over the "obvious" joke he made about the first lady in a previous episode that sparked backlash online from those in the White House.
After both Melania and her husband, President Donald Trump, posted statements on social media about a line Kimmel used in his Thursday, April 23 episode, Kimmel clarified that it was intended as a "very light roast joke."
While he didn't apologize for the joke itself, Kimmel did say he was "sorry" for something else. "I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am," he said, referring to the gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, April 25. "Just 'cause no one got killed doesn't mean it wasn't traumatic and scary."
Jimmy Kimmel during his Monday, April 27 episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'Credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube
He added, "We should come together and be best, we really should. But if you want us to believe a joke I made three days before this dinner had any effect on anything that happened, well then maybe someone should look into this psychic lady too."
Kimmel then queued up a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying there would be "some shots fired in the room tonight" before the event, referring to a speech from Trump, 79.
Kimmel held his "alternative" White House Correspondents' Dinner monologue during his Thursday episode in an effort to roast the president since "typically, somebody funny shows up" to the annual event, he said. During the segment, Kimmel joked that the first lady had "a glow like an expectant widow."
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In response to the segment, Melania called for ABC to "take a stand" against Kimmel over what she alleged was "hateful and violent rhetoric" on his show. She argued in an X post on Monday, April 27 that Kimmel "shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate."
Trump also took issue with Kimmel's remarks, calling them "shocking" in a post shared to Truth Social on Monday. In his rebuke, Trump called for Kimmel to be "immediately fired by Disney and ABC," which has aired Jimmy Kimmel Live! since its 2003 premiere.
"I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale," Trump wrote.
Responding to the president on his show, Kimmel insisted during his monologue that his remarks could not have had an impact on the events at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said of Trump and Melania, 56. "It was not by any stretch a call to assassination and they know that I've been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular."
Previously, Kimmel’s show was "indefinitely" pulled from the air on Sept. 17 after comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s death in his opening monologue on Sept. 15. FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to pursue action against the network over its criticism of Trump, and Kimmel later made his return to the airwaves six days later.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
