What Did Jimmy Kimmel Do to Offend the Trumps This Time?
First Lady Melania Trump made a call on social media to “take a stand” against Jimmy Kimmel. The comedian parodied the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which greatly offended the Trumps.
The first lady wrote on X, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
But the first lady took it a step further and called for ABC to take action against Kimmel.
She continued, “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. 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.”
Even President Donald Trump himself weighed in on the matter. He believes that Kimmel’s comments emboldened the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter to infiltrate the event.
Comedy is dead under Trump
Social media laughed at Melania Trump’s complaint against Kimmel, especially since President Trump isn’t known for tactful language. On social media, the president has threatened Iran by saying, “A whole civilization will die tonight.”
He also posted a celebratory message when former FBI Chief Robert Mueller died. The president said that he was “glad” that the chief died. Creating threats laced with genocidal language is acceptable, even if it can become US policy. Kicking a dead man’s grave also appears to be passable, but making jokes about the first lady and the president is not? The hypocrisy can’t hide itself.
As one social media user rightfully pointed out, “Have you seen your husband’s tweets?” Nevertheless, other Trump officials have been repeating the same sentiments by calling for Kimmel’s firing.
Why are the Trumps offended by Kimmel’s joke?
It’s White House tradition for a comedian to be invited to the WHCD. Most notably, comedian Trevor Noah hosted the dinner in 2022. But this year, the Trumps broke tradition, as magician Oz Pearlman was announced as the host for this year’s dinner.
Because of this, Kimmel made his comedy set about a reimagined WHCD with himself as the host. His set even stitched clips of Trump and his officials laughing at Kimmel’s jokes. Melania Trump was only roasted mildly, but the joke landed poorly on MAGA.
“So beautiful, Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said. He continued, “As you’re well aware, Melania’s a movie star now. Her documentary has a score of 10% at Rotten Tomatoes, which is a website named after her husband’s testicles.”
The comedian also mocked other officials, but the joke with Melania Trump has been interpreted with malice by Trump supporters. Social media posts in support of the Trumps accused Kimmel of promoting violence or being “hateful.”
Nevertheless, Kimmel clarified that he was joking about the president age, as Donald Trump is already 80 years old. It’s not a call for an assassination, and Kimmel also explained that he has been vocal against gun violence. Essentially, it’s just a joke that some people might find distasteful.
Allegations of paid, coordinated attacks by MAGA
An interesting observation to note is that the attacks against Kimmel came from several prominent, right-wing influencer accounts. While some of them were official government accounts, targeting an out-of-context tweet is overboard.
Ex-MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair recently revealed that MAGA-aligned influencers have a group chat where they are paid to coordinate messaging. St. Clair also said that the group chat includes members of the Trump War Room, Trump administration officials, and prominent MAGA influencers.
These claims have not been proven, although St. Clair has screenshots of one alleged group chat used to coordinate messages. Nevertheless, it may explain why there has been an influx of tweets, uniformly calling on to ABC to fire Kimmel.
The Trumps may not have called on their Federal Communications Commission chairman to directly censor Kimmel this time, but for the Trumps to pressure a network to fire a comedian through social media has roughly the same effect.
(featured image: The White House)
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