The telecommunications regulatory commission in the United States ordered an early review of the ABC network’s license on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump and the first lady asked to fire host Jimmy Kimmel.
The order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was several years ahead of schedule, affects Disney, owner of ABC, and its subsidiaries.
Trump said Kimmel should be fired immediately for claiming in one of his comedy monologues last week that first lady Melania radiated “the aura of a soon-to-be widow.”
The comedian maintains that it was a joke about the couple’s “age difference,” but the president called it a “despicable call to violence.”
Trump will turn 80 in June and is the oldest president in US history, while his wife, a Slovenian-born former model, is 56.
Like other Republicans, Melania Trump attacked Kimmel on Monday and asked ABC to “take a stance” against the presenter.
However, Kimmel downplayed the criticism. “It was a very light joke” about “the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than me,” he said on his late-night show Monday.
The White House continued its attack on Tuesday. Communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel on X a “shitty person” for “dwelling on that joke instead of doing the right thing and saying sorry.”
hate rhetoric
The host also called on Trump to discuss “hateful” rhetoric, an apparent reference to the president’s inflammatory comments about groups such as migrants, his political opponents and the media.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we must reject,” Kimmel said.
“I think a great place to start to tone it down would be to have a conversation about it with your husband,” she added, addressing the first lady.
A big star of late night TV shows, Kimmel had already been accused by the right of politically exploiting the murder of pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk last year.
Owned by Disney, ABC took the host off the air but reinstated him a week later following accusations of censorship.
