President Donald Trump called on Monday for ABC and its parent company Walt Disney to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, joining First Lady Melania Trump in condemning a joke Kimmel made about her before a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend.
Kimmel, in a parody segment aired Thursday ahead of the Saturday dinner, said Melania Trump had a "glow like an expectant widow," according to multiple reports. The joke came days before a shooting at the dinner, where a suspect identified as Cole Allen allegedly charged through a checkpoint and wounded Secret Service agents before being subdued and arrested. Trump and the first lady were rushed out of the ballroom during the incident.
The president's call for Kimmel's dismissal was reported by the BBC and the Jerusalem Post. Trump's comments followed his wife's own condemnation of the joke, in which she said Kimmel's "hateful and violent rhetoric" was "corrosive" and deepened "the political sickness within America," as quoted by both Dawn and the Jerusalem Post.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ordered an early review of Disney's television broadcast licenses, a move that some outlets describe as unprecedented, according to the BBC. The agency is requiring Disney to file license renewal applications for its eight ABC stations within 30 days. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, called the move "unprecedented, unlawful, and a clear abuse of power" in a statement reported by the BBC. The BBC noted that the commission has not revoked a broadcaster's license in recent memory, and that the review could theoretically lead to revocation, though the FCC has not taken such action in decades.
A Disney spokesperson told the BBC that the company serves the public within FCC guidelines. ABC and Disney did not respond to requests for comment, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Kimmel defended the joke during his Monday show, saying it was "a very light roast joke about the fact that she's younger than I am, and it was not a call to assassination," as reported by the BBC and Jerusalem Post.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had earlier called for Kimmel's firing, as reported by the BBC. The FCC's review was described as "unprecedented" in the BBC's report, which also noted that the commission has the authority to revoke broadcast licenses, though it has not done so recently.
Trump, in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes aired Sunday, said he was not worried during the shooting, while recalling that Melania Trump had been "very upset" and that she realized the sound was "a bullet rather than a tray," according to the Jerusalem Post. He also said security took 20 seconds to evacuate them, partly due to his reluctance to leave.
Disney has yet to respond publicly to the FCC review, according to a spokesperson quoted by the BBC, who said the company serves the public within FCC guidelines. Kimmel defended his joke on Monday night's show, calling it a "light roast joke" and noting he has been "vocal for many years" — a defense reported by the BBC.
This is not the first time Trump has pressured broadcasters to drop programming he dislikes; the Jerusalem Post noted his previous calls for action against outlets critical of him. The FCC's review of Disney's licenses is notable because license revocations are rare — the agency has not revoked a broadcaster's license in decades, according to a report from the BBC.