We are living in a simulation and our creator has one hell of a sense of humor. That’s the only possible explanation for this one.
On Monday, England’s King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the White House as part of their America-at-250 tour. There, after sharing afternoon tea (boiled Diet Coke for President Trump, probably, as Jimmy Kimmel later quipped), a garden party was thrown in our royal visitors’ honor. Trump gave a speech at the event where he spoke glowingly of his parents Mary McCloud and Fred Trump — mom came from the U.K. (Scotland, to be specific) at 19 — and went on to praise their impressive marriage of 63 years.
Turning to Melania Trump, the president then said, “That’s a record we won’t be able to match, darling. It’s just not gonna work out that way.” For her part, the first lady nearly managed a smirk.
Back to Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!: “Wait a minute. Did he just make a joke about his death?” he joked, to raucous studio audience applause. “My God, you should be fired for that.”
Kimmel then continued, “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.”
Donald Trump turns 80 in June; Melania Trump turned 56 on Sunday; they have been married for 21 years. Sixty-three years is definitely not in the cards.
Monday was the same day the Trumps individually called for Kimmel to be fired over a joke he made on TV that was clearly about the happy first couple’s age difference.
Last Thursday night, 48 hours before the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting, Kimmel put on a fake WHCD roast on his ABC show. The real dinner bucked with tradition, opting for a mentalist over a comedian — not that Oz Pearlman got very far into his act before the secret service foiled an attempt on the President’s life — so Kimmel picked up the skewering duties.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” Kimmel addressed his fake dinner’s fake audience. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The twofold joke also references the perception that Melania Trump does not like her husband. Reference the aforementioned near-smirk.
Two days after the Jimmy Kimmel Live! bit, an attempted shooter tried to get to Trump and his cabinet with violence in mind. Despite the obvious timeline here negating any sort of cause-and-effect, MAGA Republicans called for Kimmel’s head. On Monday, Melania Trump demanded ABC “take a stand.”
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social platform shortly after. (He was not.)
Hours later — the Trump posts were in the morning, the garden party scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET — Trump made pretty much the same joke about his age, and Melania pretty much reinforced the joke.
Watch Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue, below:
