President Donald Trump and Melania Trump each called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after the liberal late-night host referred to the first lady as having the glow of “an expectant widow” days before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was interrupted by a suspected attempted assassin.
During a mock WHCA Dinner last week, Kimmel mocked the first lady and her marriage while suggesting she would enjoy being a widow. The joke didn’t age well after authorities say 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California, rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, armed with multiple weapons, and opened fire, striking a Secret Service agent. Authorities say he intended to assassinate Trump and other officials.
In a defiant monologue Monday night, Kimmel insisted it “obviously was a joke about their age difference” and was not a call for an assassination.
MELANIA TRUMP CALLS FOR ABC TO FIRE JIMMY KIMMEL OVER ‘HATEFUL AND VIOLENT RHETORIC’
While residents of the White House call for ABC to take action against Kimmel, he’s not the first celebrity to joke about Trump’s death or assassination. Here are nine other examples.
Actress Lea DeLaria found herself in hot water in 2016 after she wrote on Instagram that she wanted to “take out” Republicans and Independents with a baseball bat.
DeLaria, best known for her role as “Big Boo” on “Orange Is the New Black,” shared a Leonard Bernstein quote on Instagram about responding to violence through music.
She captioned the quote by suggesting a different response to violence, writing, “Or pick up a baseball bat and take out every f—ing republican and independent I see. #f—trump #f—theGOP #f—straightwhiteamerica #f—yourprivilege.”
She later deleted the post.
Shortly after Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher’s deaths in 2016, Charlie Sheen took to Twitter asking God to take Trump next.
He tweeted with the emoji middle finger, “Dear God; Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please!”
Kathy Griffin famously posed for a photo in 2017 holding a bloodied, fake severed head of Trump.
Griffin faced backlash over the photo, lost her CNN gig and faced a Secret Service investigation for conspiracy to murder the then-president. Griffin apologized after receiving a swath of hate from critics but later rescinded that apology.
At the Women’s March on Washington in January 2017 after Trump’s first inauguration, Madonna made a comment about “blowing up the White House.”
She told the crowd of 500,000 people, “I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. But I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair. As the poet W. H. Auden once wrote on the eve of World War II, ‘We must love one another or die.’ I choose love. Are you with me?”
KIMMEL CALLS MELANIA TRUMP AN ‘EXPECTANT WIDOW’ BEFORE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING
Johnny Depp joked about assassinating Trump during a 2017 event in Glastonbury.
“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” he asked, referencing John Wilkes Booth.
“I want to clarify; I am not an actor. I lie for a living,” Depp said. “However, it has been a while, and maybe it is time.”
Late Broadway legend Carole Cook implied she wanted to see Trump get assassinated, asking “Where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him?” when approached by a TMZ cameraman in 2018.
Cook’s comment delighted her husband, who quickly reminded viewers that Booth killed a president, who was obviously Abraham Lincoln. Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., in 1865.
“Where is he when you need him?” Cook asked again before someone off camera asked, “So we need to kill President Trump?”
“Why not?” Cook asked. “Now, will that get me in trouble? Will I be on an enemy’s list? My God, I hope so… just keep me out of jail.”
Comedian George Lopez joked about collecting a rumored bounty on Trump’s head in 2020. He commented on an Instagram post touting the unverified claim that Iranian authorities had put an $80 million price on Trump’s head following the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“We’ll do it for half,” Lopez wrote.
WHO IS COLE ALLEN? CALIFORNIA MAN NAMED AS SUSPECT IN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING
Actor Jack Black’s band, Tenacious D, came under fire after Black’s bandmate made a dark joke just hours after Trump was wounded in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt in 2024.
During a concert, Black wished Gass “Happy Birthday” before asking him to “make a wish,” in a video that went viral on social media. Gass replied with, “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
Gass’ remarks came hours after Trump narrowly survived a shooting at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter killed one attendee and critically wounded two others before being killed by law enforcement.
“Saturday Night Live” cast member Michael Che cracked an assassination joke earlier this month during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment. To set up the joke, Che noted Trump attended the opening night performance of “Chicago” at the Trump Kennedy Center days earlier.
“I think that’s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean — what’s the worst that could happen?” Che said with a grin, referencing the assassination of President Lincoln, which sparked massive cheers from the liberal audience.
