New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman on Thursday challenged President Trump's intensifying campaign against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, pushing back on demands for his firing and asserting that “people don’t have to like every single joke.”
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Haberman questioned why the White House was doubling down on the comedian. “I can’t profess to understand exactly why they’re leaning in this hard on this,” she said, noting that First Lady Melania Trump’s involvement stemmed from being the target of Kimmel’s quip.
The controversy erupted after Kimmel joked on his show that the first lady had the “glow” of an “expectant widow,” a comment made days before an assassination attempt on Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Melania Trump responded Monday, calling Kimmel a “coward” and accusing him of “hateful and violent rhetoric” designed to divide the country. She demanded ABC “take a stand.”
Haberman defended the principle of free expression. “People can actually find jokes distasteful or find them unfunny or unfair or what have you. But this is free speech,” she said. She added that free speech is “the essence of what Trump claimed to be fighting for in 2024 after saying that the ‘censorious left’ cracked down on conservatives too much.”
The Trump-Kimmel feud has a long history. In September, Kimmel faced backlash after a joke about a fatal shooting linked to the MAGA movement, leading ABC to temporarily pull his show and prompting pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr. Kimmel apologized and returned to air.
Trump renewed his calls for Kimmel’s removal after the widow remark, labeling it a “call to violence.” Kimmel defended the joke, arguing it was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that.”
Kimmel escalated the exchange Tuesday by playing a clip of Trump joking about his own death during a meeting with King Charles III and Queen Camilla. When Trump told his wife, “It’s just not going to work out that way,” referencing their 21-year marriage, Kimmel quipped, “My God, he should be fired for that.” He added, “Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age, and then a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age.”
The episode underscores the broader political tension over free speech, with Trump’s past critiques of “cancel culture” now colliding with his own calls to silence a comedian. For more on Trump’s approach to free expression, see Trump Declares Victory Over Iran, Demands Bigger Win Amid Stalled Talks. Meanwhile, the White House continues to navigate fallout from the WHCA dinner incident, as Secret Service and Trump Reject Friendly Fire Claim in WHCA Shooting.
