President Trump and first lady Melania Trump demanded in separate social media posts on Monday that ABC pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel from its airwaves over a bit involving the White House correspondents’ dinner, delivered two days before it occurred.
Mr. Kimmel, who has a long history of sparring with the president, had imagined himself as the M.C. at the dinner. “Of course, our first lady, Melania, is here,” he said on Thursday night. Then, pretending to address her, he called her “so beautiful” and added: “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” He made cracks about Mr. Trump’s age and health.
This was before a gunman broke past a security perimeter in the Washington Hilton while the president and first lady were inside on Saturday.
In his social media post Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump described the comedian’s joke as “really shocking” and “something far beyond the pale.” He ended his post: “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
The first lady had posted about Mr. Kimmel a few hours earlier.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy,” she wrote. “His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.” She called Mr. Kimmel “a coward” who “shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.” She said he “hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”
“Enough is enough,” she wrote. “It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, cited Mr. Kimmel’s bit at her briefing Monday afternoon, too. “This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady, and his supporters is completely deranged,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night.”
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