Jimmy Kimmel texted Fallon, Meyers, Colbert, Oliver, after likening Melania Trump to ‘expectant widow’
Stephen Colbert asked his fellow late night hosts if they expected to be ‘doing a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about’.
Jimmy Kimmel has revealed the text message he sent to fellow late night television hosts after he found himself in hot water with the White House.
As The Late Show with Stephen Colbert enters its final weeks on air, Colbert was joined by Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Jimmy Fallon on Monday night’s episode.
During the segment, the former Strike Force Five podcast hosts discussed the relationship between their television shows and US President Donald Trump.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Colbert asked the group if they had anticipated “doing a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about”.
“You know what’s even weirder?” Kimmel asked in response.
“Doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about. That’s where it crosses over.”
“Most of us have avoided that part,” Meyers replied.
Kimmel then revealed that he had messaged their group chat when he recently found himself in hot water with Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump after making a joke which led to Mrs Trump calling for his show to be axed, again.
“It’s an amazing thing to get in a group text, just a text from Jimmy saying, ‘Oh boy,’ and then a picture of Melania mad at him,” Oliver said.
“What a way to start the day.”
Fallon then jumped in and said he messaged back.
“And then I sent a text to you guys. I sent, ‘Don’t be mad at me but I liked it. I think she’s got a point,’” he joked.
In a segment on his show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 23, he said that the first lady had “a glow like an expected widow”, which he said was a “very light roast joke” about the age gap between Mr and Mrs Trump.
Two days later there was a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Mrs Trump posted on X asking ABC to “take a stand” and remove Kimmel from the air after the joke was made.
“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.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
In a Truth Social post, Mr Trump echoed the sentiment and described the comments as “a call to violence”.
“When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!!” he wrote in another post.
In Kimmel’s first monologue after the gunman opened fire at the White House, he said the joke was “a very light roast joke about the fact that (Mr Trump) is almost 80 and she’s younger than (Kimmel)“.
“It was not 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,” he said.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it.”
When Colbert asked Kimmel on Monday night what it was like to receive so much attention from the White House, he shared the “saddest part” of it.
“I realise in those moments that the only four people who care are sitting right here,” Kimmel said, gesturing to his fellow late night hosts.
“It takes 12 hours for the rest of the people in my life to even figure out that anything’s going on.
“Two hours after that, a guy I used to work with sent me a text. He’s like, ‘Hey, do you know a real estate lawyer?’”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled off air for six days in September after he made comments about the death of Charlie Kirk.
