Jimmy Kimmel doubled down on his criticism of President Trump after the president called for his firing and the Federal Communications Commission opened an investigation into ABC’s TV licenses.
During the Tuesday monologue of his late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Kimmel flashed a clip of Trump apologizing for the first lady for likely being unable to match his parents’ 63-year marriage.
“Wait a minute, did he just make a joke about his death?” Kimmel said. “Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age and then, a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age.”
The joke came the same day that the FCC chairman Brendan Carr launched a probe of ABC’s broadcast TV licenses.
The review is an extension of an FCC probe launched last March into the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives of ABC-parent Disney.
The timing of the review — being so close to Kimmel’s latest beef with the president — is “coincidental,” a source with knowledge told The Wall Street Journal.
President Trump said on Monday that the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” should be fired for remarks he made days prior to a shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
On his April 23 show, Kimmel presented a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech where he joked that the first lady had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
He said in his monologue last Thursday: “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The first lady slammed Kimmel, calling him a “coward” on X, in the days after the correspondents’ dinner.
“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,” she wrote on Monday.
The suspected shooter, Cole Allen, has been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, along with other counts. Trump called for Kimmel’s firing on Monday, after Melania spoke out.
Kimmel pushed back on the criticism of his joke, saying: “It wasn’t by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
In its order Tuesday, the FCC’s Media bureau said it has been investigating the stations for “violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination” linked to DEI initiatives.
The FCC said ABC has until May 28 to file its early license renewals.
“We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,” a Disney rep said Tuesday. “Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”
It’s rare for the FCC to launch an early review of broadcast licenses. According to The Journal, the last time the FCC revoked a broadcast license related to a station’s programming was in 1969, when a Jackson, Miss., station lost its license for defending segregation on the air.
Disney owns eight ABC TV outlets in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The licenses for those stations come up for renewal between 2028 and 2031.
Kimmel had previously been on the hot seat over his monologue.
Last September, Kimmel was taken off the air for a week following backlash from affiliates in the wake of his comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
The week-long suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” prompted widespread boycotts of Disney, with liberals accusing it of violating the First Amendment.
Kimmel refused to apologize when he returned to the air on Sept. 23, but said: “It was never my intention to make light of a murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
