Melania Trump asks ABC to stand against "hateful and violent rhetoric"... from Jimmy Kimmel (Updated)

“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,” writes Melania on X, the everything app, this morning. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. 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.” 

Of course, Kimmel has already been a target for this administration, with his show being pulled off the air for a few days last fall after he argued the right was “working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.” One might make the argument that this, too, is an example of trying to capitalize on an instance of political violence to punish a critic, but we suppose that’s for ABC and FCC chair Brendan Carr to work out. 

[Update 2:00 pm]: President Trump directly called for the firing on Kimmel in a post on Truth Social this afternoon, writing that the late night host “showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be.” (The segment was edited to resemble a real White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” continues Trump’s post. “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. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”