What to Know
President Donald Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, have called for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over his “despicable” joke and “hateful and violent rhetoric.” And author Stephen King thinks they’re hypocrites, given the hateful way in which the president has spoken about people.
A few days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Jimmy made a joke about the president and first lady’s age gap. Melania is 56 years old, while her husband is approaching 80. So, during a mock roast on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy joked that Melania had “a glow like an expectant widow.” Of course, the age-gap joke felt especially eerie after the shooting that happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner days later. And the president and first lady acted outraged by it.
Meanwhile, Stephen acted like the couple had no business accusing Jimmy of “hateful rhetoric.”
In an X post, he shared two examples of why their outrage felt so hypocritical. “Melania Trump says Jimmy Kimmel should be canceled,” the author wrote on X. “Last week her husband commented on Robert Mueller’s death: ‘Good. I’m glad he’s dead.'”
Stephen then added that the president “said pretty much the same about (his) old friend Rob Reiner.” He summed up the post with, “People who live in glass houses (shouldn’t) throw s—.”
Stephen was referring to how, after the former F.B.I. director died in March, the president took to social media to write, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
And when Rob was killed, he wrote, “Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
People largely agreed with Stephen.
Melania Trump says Jimmy Kimmel should be canceled. Last week her husband commented on Robert Mueller’s death: “Good. I”m glad he’s dead.”
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 27, 2026
Said Pretty much the same about my old friend Rob Reiner.
People who live in glass houses should’t throw shit.
“He’s right,” one person wrote in a Reddit discussion about Stephen’s post. “His comments on the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner were absolutely sickening but we’re all so numb to how horrible he is that we couldn’t even process it.”
Many others agreed that both Donald and Melania are indeed hypocritical, but they’re also not convinced that they care about that. “He’s not wrong,” someone else wrote. “Unfortunately I just don’t think those people care about being hypocrites.”
Later, Jimmy himself also called the Trumps out for their hypocrisy, given that the president literally joked about his own death right after he complained about the “expectant widow” joke.
During a recent speech, the president reflected on how his parents were married for 63 years. He then turned to his wife and joked, “That’s a record we won’t be able to match, darling. I’m sorry. Just not gonna work out that way.”
Jimmy joked that he should be fired for that joke.
On Tuesday, April 28, Jimmy played that clip on his show. “Wait a minute!” he said after showing it. “Did he just make a joke about his death? My God! He should be fired for that.”
He also addressed the controversy on Monday, saying his joke about Melania being “an expectant widow” was clearly “a joke about their age difference” and “was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination — and they know that.”
However, that didn’t stop the president from accusing Jimmy of sharing a “despicable call to violence.”
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