Jimmy Kimmel Says Donald Trump and Melania Are ‘Closer Than Ever’ — And He Takes the Credit

Jimmy Kimmel took a fresh jab at President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. He quipped that the couple seems to have grown “closer than ever” and said that he might be partly responsible for the same. 

On Wednesday, April 29, the late-night show host said on his show, “First couple, Donald and Melania, who lately have seemed closer than ever, and I like to think I played a part in that.” 

Kimmel was referring to the footage of President Trump and his wife, Melania, trying to hold hands as they arrived at the state dinner at the White House East Room, along with King Charles III and Queen Camilla, on Tuesday, April 28. 

Kimmel then played a clip from the event, showcasing the awkward moment between the POTUS and the First Lady. “Considering the week I have had with the first couple, I am just gonna say, that is a completely normal way for two people to interact who are very much in love,” Kimmel said, adding to his roast of Trump and Melania. 

Over the last few days, Kimmel has been involved in an online feud with both Donald Trump and Melania.

It started when, two days before the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner, Kimmel joked that Melania looked like an “expectant widow” as he hosted an alternative WHCA dinner on his show. 

Later, Melania called for Kimmel’s firing after the chaotic shooting incident unfolded at the WHCA dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, April 25. 

“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,” Melania Trump wrote in a post on X.

“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,” she said. 

President Trump also posted on Truth Social, calling for the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live and bashing the host’s “despicable call to violence.”

“Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking,” Trump wrote on his social media platform at the time. 

“He 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. He then stated, ‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’”

Trump then added, “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. 

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.”

On Monday, April 27, Kimmel defended his “expectant widow” joke and said, “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that.”

He also added that he has always been vocal about his opposition to gun violence. “But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend,” Kimmel said. “And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”