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  "path": "/news/1995548/melania-trump-says-abc-should-take-stand-on-late-night-host-kimmel-over-joke-likening-her-to-an-expectant-widow",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-27T16:05:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
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  "textContent": "US first lady Melania Trump said on Monday it was time for _ABC_ to “take a stand” on Jimmy Kimmel over a joke likening her to an “expectant widow,” a jibe with eerie resonance after a shooting at a dinner attended by President Donald Trump.\n\nEven though Kimmel made the remark in a monologue days ago, right-wing commentators who support Trump have resurrected it to call for the head of the talk show host.\n\nAdministration officials say a gunman who tried to storm a media gala dinner with a shotgun on Saturday night in Washington was apparently targeting Trump and other administration officials.\n\nSecurity officers subdued the man after an exchange of gunfire.\n\nIn the aftermath of the drama, right-wing critics claimed that Democrats criticising 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.\n\nAs a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.\n\nIn his monologue last Thursday, Kimmel portrayed himself as the MC of that upcoming banquet, a glitzy yearly event called the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.\n\n> 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.”\n\nTrump 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.\n\nHitting 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[s] the political sickness within America”.\n\nKimmel 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.\n\n> “A coward, Kimmel hides behind _ABC_ because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” the first lady added on Monday.\n\n“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.”",
  "title": "Melania Trump says ABC should take stand on late-night host Kimmel over joke likening her to an 'expectant widow'"
}