Days after calling for comedian Jimmy Kimmel to lose his job after mocking the near quarter-century age gap between President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, the president used the same subject matter as fodder for a joke in his speech welcoming King Charles III to the White House on Tuesday.
Trump was working his way through meandering remarks at the end of a formal arrival ceremony on the South Lawn when he segued from meditating on the deep friendship that has developed between the U.S. and U.K. over the 250 years since American independence to his Scottish-born mother, Mary McLeod Trump’s admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
As Trump noted how his mother had emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. at age 19 and entered into what would be a 63-year marriage with his father, he turned back to the first lady, who was seated with Queen Camilla behind him.
“That’s a record we won’t be able to match, darling,” he said wistfully.
“I’m sorry, it’s just not going to work out that way,,” he continued with a chuckle. “We’ll do well, but we’re not going to do that well.”
The president, who turns 80 this June and is the oldest person to ever serve as commander-in-chief, was clearly referring to the 24-year age gap between him and his 56-year-old wife. The first couple met in 1998, when she was a 28-year-old fashion model and he was a 52-year-old real estate executive and media figure.
Trump’s lighthearted jab at his wife’s relative youth came a day after he demanded that ABC “immediately fire” Kimmel, the longtime host of his eponymous late-night program, for a joke delivered during a mock White House Cprrespondet’s Dinner-style roast of the president and first lady aired on his Thursday program.
Kimmel’s jokes included a description of Melania as having “a glow like an expectant widow” in what appeared to be a reference to the president’s age. at the time but would come to be taken as something far sinister days later.
After a gunman attempted to storm the Saturday evening charity fundraiser at the Washington Hilton, both the president and the first lady recast Kimmel’s earlier comments as advocating for the president’s assassination.
On Monday, Mrs. Trump took to X with a statement accusing Kimmel of using “hateful and violent rhetoric” and calling him a “coward” who “hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”
She did not explicitly demand that Kimmel be canceled, but instead called on the network to “take a stand.”
But her husband went further on Truth Social hours later, accusing Kimmel of essentially calling for his death.
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.
Unlike a similar blow-up involving Kimmel last September after the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk, the network aired Kimmel’s program as usual on Monday, bucking the president’s demand.
In response, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr appears ready to punish the Disney-owned television network by ordering it to participate in an early review of broadcast licenses for the television stations it owns in several major markets, including New York City and Chicago.
