US first lady Melania Trump said it was time for ABC to "take a stand" on host Jimmy Kimmel over a monologue he delivered prior to the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington DC.
"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," she said in a post 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.
— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 27, 2026
People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to…
Mr Kimmel, in a parody of the White House Correspondents' Dinner that aired last week before the actual event, said: "Mrs Trump you have a glow like an expectant widow."
US President Donald Trump and the first lady were rushed out of the dinner Saturday after a shooting in the lobby of the Washington Hilton.
A suspect identified as Cole Allen charged through a checkpoint and fired at Secret Service agents, wounding one, before he was subdued and arrested.
Disney and ABC did not immediately comment.
Mr Trump said this afternoon that Mr Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC following his monologue prior to the shooting.
"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," Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
"Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC."
In September, the head of the Federal Communications Commission pressured broadcasters to take Mr Kimmel off the air.
ABC briefly suspended Mr Kimmel's show that month over comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours before the suspension, FCC head Brendan Carr warned that local broadcasters who aired Mr Kimmel could face fines or loss of licenses and said "it's time for them to step up."
His comments garnered pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who likened his threats to that of an organised crime boss.
In September, Sinclair SBGI.O and Nexstar Media Group NXST.O briefly took Mr Kimmel's show off the air on their 70 ABC-affiliated stations covering nearly a quarter of US households.
Mr Carr wants to make it easier for local broadcasters to pre-empt national programming.
In November, Mr Trump criticised an ABC News correspondent for asking Saudi Arabia's crown prince about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist and suggested the commission should move to revoke the broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC stations.
