President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have both demanded that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made about the president on his late night show last week. Experts in constitutional law and free speech stress that the attacks from the Trumps cannot be normalized.
On Monday, Melania Trump ripped Kimmel in a post on X days after he took digs at the Trumps as he performed a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Kimmel pretended to host the event, which usually is hosted by a comedian who roasts the president and other powerful people. During his spoof monologue, Kimmel pretended the first lady was in the audience and quipped that she had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
“Melania’s birthday is on Sunday … she’s planning to celebrate the same way she always does — looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’” he added.
Kimmel’s skit aired April 23, two days before the actual dinner, where authorities say a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the event. The 31-year-old suspect was later charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, in addition to other firearm-related charges. He is facing up to life in prison.
Despite the fact that Kimmel’s bit aired days before the dinner, Melania Trump accused the late night host of delivering a monologue that was “corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she wrote. “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.”
Hours later, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to accuse Kimmel of issuing a “call to violence.”
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” he wrote. (ABC is owned by Disney.)
Kimmel stood by his joke. During his monologue Monday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” he pointed out that his bit was about the age difference between the Trumps.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” he said. “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.”
Experts in constitutional law and free speech are sounding the alarm about the Trumps’ attacks on Kimmel.
“The calls by the Trumps for Kimmel to be fired are deeply concerning, because they strike at the heart of free speech in the United States,” said Heidi Kitrosser, professor of law at Northwestern University. “As courts have rightly told us again and again, over many decades, speech about government and politics is of especially high value in a democracy.”
Kitrosser stressed that it’s “crucial that we the people retain the right to criticize, and certainly to joke about, those who govern us.”
“For the most powerful man in the world, the U.S. president, and his spouse to call for a comedian to be fired because he offends them is the stuff of dictators and mad kings,” she told HuffPost. “It is behavior unfit for a democracy.”
Raymond Ku, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, also emphasized that Donald Trump’s calls for Kimmel’s firing are not what we should expect from a U.S. president.
“This is a flagrant abuse of power and a direct attack on freedom of speech,” he told HuffPost. “Threats of this sort are what we expect from dictators, not the president of the United States.”
The day after the Trumps publicly demanded that Disney and ABC fire Kimmel, the Federal Communications Commission, helmed by Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump to chair the FCC, ordered early license reviews of Disney’s eight owned-and-operated ABC stations. The licenses are not due for renewal until 2028.
A spokesperson for the FCC told NBC News on Tuesday that the order was based on an ongoing investigation into Disney’s “DEI conduct, not any speech.” But many are viewing the escalation as retribution for Kimmel’s joke.
Ku said that “any threat to a broadcaster’s license is a threat to a free press.”
“In Trump’s second term, the FCC chair has publicly stated that, in his opinion, the commission is not an independent agency,” he said.
Ku said that the FCC ordering a review of Disney licenses is “unprecedented” and “illegal.” It’s the “clearest sign to date that under Brendan Carr, the FCC works for Trump and not the American public,” he said.
Carr had previously slammed Kimmel for remarks the host made last year about the way many in the MAGAverse had immediately responded to Charlie Kirk’s killing. Carr said on a podcast that Kimmel’s speech was a “very serious issue” for Disney.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said at the time. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show shortly after, before later bringing it back on the air.
“As reported during Trump’s first attack on Kimmel, they are willing to have Kimmel fired ‘the easy way or the hard way,’” Ku said, citing Carr’s past remarks. “The easy way didn’t work for the administration the first time.”
And as it relates to the FCC now ordering Disney to file early license renewals, Ku said, “to the extent that such a review is prompted by DEI, it is an even larger threat to a free press.”
“Trump is threatening the entire media landscape by using the FCC to benefit his allies and punish everyone else,” he said.
Kitrosser emphasized that Kimmel’s speech doesn’t “remotely justify a license revocation.”
“Although the government may impose some restrictions on government subsidies and other benefits, including broadcast licenses, it is beyond dispute that they may not do so because they disagree with a speaker’s viewpoint,” she said. “More so, the FCC’s own governing statute explicitly bars the commission from using licensing as a basis to censor speakers.”
Kimmel’s monologue is ‘unquestionably’ protected by the First Amendment, experts say.
Ku and Kitrosser emphasized that Kimmel’s speech is protected.
“Kimmel’s speech is unquestionably protected by the First Amendment,” Kitrosser said. “Putting aside the licensing issue for a moment, his speech is right at the heart of what the First Amendment protects.”
“It is speech about those who govern us. It is by no stretch of the imagination a ‘true threat’ or incitement to violence,” she continued. “It does not, in short, fall remotely within any of the categories of unprotected speech under a long history of free speech case law.”
Kitrosser said it’s important we call out Trump’s ongoing attacks on Kimmel.
“It is very important for all of us, but especially for powerful institutions like ABC and Disney, to call out Trump’s threats for what they are: an affront to the First Amendment and to our cherished right as Americans to criticize, to assess and, yes, to poke fun at those who govern us,” she said.
Ku stressed that Trump’s behavior “cannot be normalized.”
“The public must understand that the freedom to criticize our elected officials, whether through humor, insult or angry commentary, is the bedrock of a free society,” he said. “This is part of a consistent pattern throughout Trump’s career and presidency to bully critics and use the threat of a costly legal battle to his advantage.”
“This cannot be normalized if this country is to remain committed to freedom of speech,” he added.
